"We wouldn't ever get sick of her or her talking. Look over there at Beulah and Bessie, both of them watching her as if she was their own grandchild. She's just what the inn needed. I'm glad you asked us about a place for her."
Briar kept eating. Things were working out even better than he'd ever imagined. Moving to Healdton had been the wisest idea he'd ever had. Libby was getting so much attention, she'd probably be spoiled rotten by the end of a year. Judith and Cecil were so happy he was more than a little jealous. For the first time since Libby's mother walked out the door, he was drawn to another woman. Yes, sir, things were surely looking up.
He held those thoughts for exactly thirty seconds before a forkful of barbecued beef landed on the front of his white shirt and ran down across the buttons to stop at the top of his silver belt buckle. He rolled his eyes and swore under his breath.
Clara looked up and saw the mess on Briar's shirt and began to giggle. Her hands began to shake in merriment and suddenly the fork she had laden with baked beans dumped on the front of her dress and slithered down to the hem before it stopped.
"Guess we'd best go find a washcloth and clean this mess up," she said.
"I can change shirts. There's soap in the bathroom if you want to sponge as much of that off as you can."
"Reckon any of your employees or relatives would he interested in kissing a clumsy woman?" she asked as she lay her napkin beside a near empty plate.
"Clara, as beautiful as you are, they wouldn't even see the stains," Briar said honestly, holding out his hand to her.
"This has been a wonderful day" Clara accepted the help but dropped his hand quickly. The feelings evoked when her fingers touched his were enough to set off sparks.
"I swear you have done a complete turnaround since that first day you found out I was an oil man" Briar led the way across the lawn and into the house.
"And I can turn back around just as fast, so don't get too happy in that shirt," she smarted off.
"I'm fixin' to change it, lady"
"And by the time you do, I may be all up in arms again about oil riffraff coming to Healdton," she said.
He stood aside and motioned for her to go up the stairs ahead of him. "Bathroom is at the end of the hall. It won't take me long to change my shirt. I don't suppose you would want to help me?" He raised a dark eyebrow rakishly.
"Talk is going to set Healdton, Oklahoma on fire by nightfall. I'm already a ruined woman coming into the house with you. All of the guests saw us. Beulah and Bessie will have a lecture ready. Nellie and Cornelia will be aghast. So no, sir, I do not want to help you change your shirt." Clara stopped at the open door.
He grinned and eased around her into his room, but he didn't shut the door behind him. "Can't blame a man for asking."
"Hello, Briar," a silky smooth feminine voice said from a rocking chair next to the window.
Clara stooped dead in her tracks. If she'd had a choice of going on to the bathroom to clean baked beans from her dress or dropping dead, she'd have had to ask the mortician to come measure her for a pine box. Her feet were cemented to the floor with glue and her head swirled. He'd been flirting with her all day and had a woman in his bedroom at the same time.
Briar's voice was icy cold. "Lorianne, what are you doing here?"
"Why, darlin', I've come home to be a loving wife and mother," the woman said. "Who's the little bit of fluff you brought with you? Don't you think you need to bring her on in here and introduce her to your wife?"
"Leave Clara out of this and tell me what you're really doing here" Briar crossed his arms just inside the door. She was still picture beautiful. Dark hair styled in the latest fashion. Blue eyes. Wearing red satin trimmed in matching lace and shoes to match. Her hat probably cost as much as Judith's wedding. The same woman who'd stolen his heart and then broken it in a million pieces.
With a racing heart, Clara finally moved her feet from the floor and started back to the foyer. Briar's back was to the door and he didn't see or hear her, but she stole a glance through the open door. Sitting in a rocking chair beside the window was none other than Lorianne Lawdry, the most famous actress on Broadway. Good Lord! That was the Lorianne he'd talked about! Briar had been married to the lady who graced the cover of at least one magazine cover a month. That was Libby's mother and she'd just said she was home to stay. There was no way in God's great green earth Briar Nelson would ever look at someone like Clara Anderson after he'd been married to her. Clara eased out the front door and calmly made her way through the pecan grove and across the stile to Tucker's farm. When she got to the house she slid into a rocking chair on the back porch, put her head in her hands and fought back tears.
Now that Lorianne was home, Libby wouldn't arrive at 8:00 every morning. Neither would Briar. Why, oh why, didn't she learn her lesson with Percy? Married men were as dangerous as a poisonous rattler. Why did she have to be drawn to them?
"So what are you really here for?" Briar asked his ex-wife.
She fanned herself with the back of her hand dramatically. "Why do you think I'd come to this place?"
"How much and why?" Briar wondered how he'd ever fallen in love with those cold, cold blue eyes. Thank goodness there was life in Libby's eyes, even if they were the same color as her mother's.
"I'm leaving the stage and getting into the moving picture business. I need a few thousand dollars. For the money, I will give you my word that you will never see me again."
"You make a lot of money. Why are you coming to me? And just how good is your word?" he asked.
"I make a lot, but I spend a lot. I'm coming to you because you have it and you won't even miss it. It will be a couple of months before I see money from the first picture. And my word is solid. I'll never come back to this hick town again. Take it or leave it. I could still get a lawyer and take Libby from you. I can play the part of the poor little wife who ran in fear of her life from her mean husband, leaving her small baby daughter behind. I could have a judge eating out of my hand, Briar, and you know it."
"You wouldn't dare," he hissed.
"Oh, honey, I would. I definitely would," Lorianne said.
"Do you want to see Libby?" Briar asked.
"No, I don't think so. I thought I might. Curiosity, you know. But I changed my mind. A person doesn't miss what they never had. She was mine for a month and, like I told you when I left, I resented her for taking me away from the stage. Things haven't changed. I just want five thousand dollars and I'll disappear."
"You are one cold-hearted woman. Libby is a cute little girl, full of life, beautiful."
"How could she be anything else? I'm her mother. If she got half my looks, she'd still be gorgeous. Maybe she'll get your business mind and be beautiful and smart. And yes, I am cold-hearted. I'll admit it. It's what gets me what I want when I want it. You knew what I was when you married me. Our marriage should have never happened, but I was just too taken up in the moment and the glory of a big wedding."
"I'll pay this time, Lorianne, but I won't be blackmailed. I won't pay again. Ever. So don't come back. I mean it," Briar told her.
"You've got my word. Cash? Got it here?"
"In my safe downstairs. I want you out of here as soon as I bring it to you."
"Couldn't keep me here if you begged-and, darlin', we both know what an expert beggar you are"
"Stay here and I'll be back in five minutes. If Clara comes out of the bathroom, tell her I'll only be a moment," Briar said.
"Oh, that woman? She peeked in and left right at the beginning of our conversation. That's why I said I'd come home to stay. To run her off. Consider it one last favor from me. You don't want some little nobody from a place like this," she laughed. "Not after you've been married to me"
"You never change." Briar hoped Clara hadn't run away.
"Neither do you. You're always the knight-in-shining armor trying to rescue someone. Even me. Turn the actress into a proper wife and loving mother. Briar, women don't want to be rescued.
Take my word for it. Just get my money and I'll slip out of here. You'll never see me again except on the big screen."
"I'll even avoid that," he threw over his shoulder as he headed down to the safe.
Clara felt sorry for herself for about ten minutes, then anger set in. Even if that woman was a big hotshot actress she had no right to think she could come waltzing back into Libby's life after four years. Clara might never see Libby or Briar again, but she wasn't going to sit on Tucker's back porch and whimper all day, licking her wounded pride. No sir, she was going right back over there to the reception and she was going to speak her piece to that woman. Granny Anderson would have already had a green pecan switch picked and skinned of all its leaves if she'd seen Clara tuck tail and run away from another woman.
Clara covered the distance back to the stile in minutes, hiked up her stained skirt tail and made short work of the walk back to the house. She marched up to the porch, took a deep breath and opened the front door. The minute she started up the stairs, she looked up to see Lorianne at the top, carefully counting a thick stack of money and shoving it into her purse. The woman smiled sweetly when she noticed Clara and ever so slowly, very dramatically, made her way down, one step at a time, never taking her eyes from Clara. "Where is Briar?" Clara asked.
"Gone back to his little party, I'm sure."
Clara didn't flinch but stared deeply into the woman's eyes. What she saw there chilled her soul to the core. "Where are you going?"
Lorianne dabbed at a trained tear slipping down her cheek. "Why, darlin', I'm leaving. Don't trust that man. When Libby was born, he found another woman and turned me out without a penny. He's a womanizer, a smooth talker."
"Lorianne Lawdry, you are lying," Clara said bluntly.
"You are crazy," Lorianne replied.
"Probably so, but I'm not stupid."
"Got a problem in here?" Tilly asked, barely a foot behind Clara.
"Nothing I can't handle" Clara didn't even turn around.
Lorianne let her eyes go to the stain on Clara's dress and linger there as if she were looking at a pile of trash. "I'm just leaving. Just remember, darlin', Briar isn't what he appears to be. Be careful. He's sly and he's not above breaking your heart. I've forgotten more about him than you will ever know."
"Maybe so, but I've got the rest of my life to find out everything about him," Clara said.
"Oh, honey, you really are a simple-minded creature."
"And very proud to be so. Don't come back to Carter County," Clara said.
"You wouldn't be threatening me, would you? Wild horses couldn't bring me back to this godforsaken dirt hole." Lorianne pushed past both women and out the front door.
"You going to let her have the last word?" Tilly asked.
"Yep, I am"
"You believe what she said about Briar?"
'No.
"Why?"
"Because-"
Tilly threw her arm around her cousin's shoulder.
"Come on over to my house. I've got a new dress that will fit you perfectly. Pale lilac with a hat to match. You can't wear the shoes. They'd be a size too big, but the ones you've got on will match fairly well. We can get you cleaned up so you can flirt with Briar without being self-conscious. And besides, if she changes her mind and decides she didn't win that catfight she might be back with her claws honed up real sharp. You wouldn't want to look like you do right now. Or I could just take you home and let Briar think he's attracted to a simpering woman with no backbone."
"Thank you, Tilly. I would love to borrow your new dress. I intend to dance with every man here, including your preacher, and I'm going to marry one of them when I decide which one I'm going after. And I wasn't threatening that woman. She's evil. I can see it in her eyes."
"So could I, but if you believe that you are going to marry anyone but Briar, then I'm a little saint girl who's going to the convent next week"
Briar didn't even take time to change his shirt before he dashed out the back door. He scanned the whole area for Clara. She wasn't on the dance stage. Nowhere around the tables where Beulah and Bessie were laughing over the antics of a bunch of little girls who were playing wedding. Figuring she must be on the front porch, he jogged around the house just in time to see Lorianne leaving in a fancy new car and Tilly's vehicle following it out.
In the split second before the car disappeared, he realized Clara was in the car with Tilly. He sat down on the porch swing, feeling emptier than he had since the day Lorianne told him she had her bags packed and was going back to New York. He'd known she wasn't happy but had chalked it up to baby blues. He'd often won dered what his reaction would be if she ever came back. Then suddenly, at the worst possible moment, she was sitting in his bedroom and had just ruined another portion of his life.
He rocked himself gently and let the hill music slowly seep into his soul, but it didn't soothe the ache. Lorianne wasn't worth a moment of his anger. He just wished he would have known she was waiting for him. He'd have sure handled the situation differently with Clara. Thirty minutes later, he was still rocking when Tilly drove down the lane and around the house to the backyard where the overflow of wagons and cars were parked. Briar was shocked beyond words to see Clara in the passenger's seat. He was even more amazed when she came through the house, opened the front door and sat down beside him on the swing.
"Guess we need to talk," he said.
"What about? Tilly offered to take me over to her house and loan me this dress so I wouldn't be a mess all day. The beans will take more than a washcloth to get out of the one I was wearing. Looks like you still need to change your shirt."
"You saw Lorianne and heard part of the conversation, didn't you?"
"I saw her. I heard. I left in a huff. I came back angry and we had what Tilly calls a catfight. I let her have the last word, but I think I won the fight. You'll still let me keep Libby even though I think you were stupid to marry a woman like that, won't you?"
"I think you were stupid to give a man like Percy ten years. I only gave Lorianne eleven months."
"But you would have given her ten years or twenty for Libby's sake. So don't judge me or take out your anger on me because she came and hoodwinked you into giving her money to go away"
"She tell you that?"
"No, she told me a lot of other things, but when I sifted through them, not much came through in the form of truth. Most of it was fabrication to make you look bad and me not like you. I saw her putting money away in her purse, so I figured that out on my own."
"Pretty outspoken, aren't you, Clara Anderson?"
"Yes, I'm very outspoken, Briar Nelson, and you should know that from the day we first met. So you got anything more to say about this?"
"No. You want to talk about it?"
"God, no! This is a wonderful day. A party. All this family. Why would I want to talk about that woman? She's gone. The dust has settled. So it cost you a few dollars. I vote we bury her name in the past and never look back there again. Now I'd like to dance again."
Briar could scarcely believe his ears. "You are an amazing woman."
"No, a very selfish one. I like where my life is right now, Briar. I don't want that woman messing it up."
"Do I have time to change my shirt before we dance? I wouldn't want this barbecue to stain that lovely dress you are wearing and I intend to hold you close"
"We've got all day. Just promise me there's not another ex-wife up there in your bedroom" She smiled brightly.
"I promise. There's only one of those and like you said, the dust has settled," he promised.
Tilly slipped into Briar's spot on the swing. "So, you going to keep him or is he up for grabs? I didn't see anything that particularly interested me today. I took a turn around the yard to check out the possibilities. Nothing looks too inviting. Preacher is too stuffy and the rest of them just don't take my fancy"
"I don't know if I'm keeping him or not. It's a possibility, maybe. Please let me figure out my own mind
before you go to grabbing. Once you set your mind, there wouldn't be any room for me," Clara said honestly.
"Just what makes you say such a thing? Hell's bells, Clara, we look enough alike to be sisters and you've got a better nature than me. Besides, he hasn't even thrown a glance my way," Tilly said.
"I'm almost as outspoken as you, especially since Briar popped into my life again. And, honey, a day hasn't dawned when anyone in Carter County could hold a light to your looks."
"I don't think Lorianne Lawdry is out of the county yet and she's the prettiest woman in the whole country," Tilly said. "But remember, he's already found out beauty without love isn't much of a bargain."
"Yes, he did. It doesn't mean he still won't yearn for what might have been and let it ruin a second relation ship. I just want a while to get to know the man. Who knows? Once I do, I may not even like him."
"If you don't, I bet you step right up and tell him so and the reasons behind it, too," Tilly said.
"Spoken like a true Anderson. Granny would be proud of both of us," Clara said. "Think we'll ever really marry, or are we just going to flirt around until we're both old and gray?"
"It's said the good die young, so I expect we'll both live to be old and gray and I don't intend to stop flirting until I draw my last breath. I hear someone on the steps, so take your time deciding if you're going to keep him. I'm not sure I'd want him anyway."
"You demon. You were just baiting me to see where I stood with him!"
"Yep, I was and now I know." Tilly left Clara sitting on the swing alone.
Briar returned, shirt changed and ready to dance. He offered his hand to Clara one second, and the next, Libby wrapped both arms around one leg and sobbed, leaving wet patches on his trousers. "Daddy, make it stop. Tell them all to go home"
Clara was on her feet instantly, kneeling beside Libby. "Why? Libby, you were having such a good time. Why should your daddy make them go home?"
"Acause," she sobbed. "Judy is going away."
Morning Glory Page 15
