He looked at his mother who nodded and chose a muffin. Their mothers yelled their thanks to Agnes who waved them off with a flick of the wrist.
“That will be two dollars,” Anna Ruth said.
Agnes moved around to the back of the table, fished a bill from her purse, and handed it to Anna Ruth. Then she grabbed the edge of the table and with a shove sent the whole thing flying out across the yard and into the street. The wind stuck the glittery sign to the front windshield of Violet’s limo. A jalapeño banana muffin with thick cream cheese frosting flew through the air and smashed with great force against Violet’s flag pin. A Styrofoam bowl of salsa wound up in Anna Ruth’s blond hair. And the whole place looked like a major crime scene by the time the red picante, cream-cheese-covered muffins, and everything on the table had mixed together in the air and come crashing down on the sidewalk and street.
“What have you done?” Violet screamed.
“Guess I’m clumsy. Got it from my daddy. He aimed for a damned old rooster one time and knocked out the windshield of his new car. I was reaching for some picante and lost my balance. Guess you better keep that whole hundred dollar bill I just gave you, Anna Ruth. I wouldn’t want it said I don’t pay up when I make a mess.”
“You did that on purpose so we wouldn’t win the award for the best booth.” Violet brushed the cream cheese icing from her jacket and then wiped it on the butt of her slacks before she thought. “Now look what you made me do!”
“You might want to call the cleaning crew to come take care of this before the fire ants find it. They go to stinging the kids and their mammas are all going to get pissed at you, Violet, since you’re in charge of the whole Jubilee. Or worse yet, the kids will start using those pepper poppers like footballs to kick up and down the street and food will wind up on all those antique cars. I don’t know if hot peppers can ruin the paint or not, but I wouldn’t take no chances. You’re lucky I’m clumsy. Violet’s muffins would probably taste like shit anyway. She never did learn how to cook.”
It started as a snicker, turned into a giggle, and then was a full-fledged roar that Cathy could not control. If Agnes had planned what would hit Anna Ruth and Violet, she couldn’t have done a better job.
Trixie stepped out on the front porch seconds before food peppered through the air like bullets from a machine gun. Her laughter brought Darla Jean and Marty on the run and just in time to hear more of the argument.
“You are evil and vile,” Violet hissed.
“And you look like shit,” Agnes said. “Go on home and put on that red, white, and blue dress you wore to church. It looks like a circus tent so it will go right along with this jubilee.”
“What are they fighting over now? Oh my God!” Marty saw the upturned table and the mess. “Please don’t tell me there is a dead body in all that mess.”
Trixie wiped her eyes, smearing mascara everywhere. “Agnes did it. God, I hope I grow up to be just like her.”
Violet took a step toward Agnes.
Agnes bowed right up to her. “You don’t really want to do this, do you?”
“Why don’t you lie down and die?” Violet asked.
“You first. I got to see where you go before I die. I’d go to hell before I’d go to heaven with you. Now get on out of here and make yourself presentable. In about ten minutes, that boy of yours is getting on his stump to promise the citizens of Cadillac a better life. I don’t reckon you want to miss it. Just lick the icing off your fancy bitch pin and go on now.” Agnes laced her arm in Cathy’s and marched her up the driveway to the back door.
“I reckon that will pay for part of the food I’ve eaten the past two years,” she said when they reached the back porch.
“Your bill is paid in full, Aunt Agnes!” Cathy hugged her tightly.
* * *
At noon, Jack arrived to buy take-out lunches for the break room at the police station.
“Heard that Agnes tipped the club table out into the street and then paid for everything on it,” he whispered to Trixie.
Trixie nodded. “Agnes is my new hero.”
“What happened?”
Trixie told him between giggles.
“I may not go home tonight. Mamma is going to fret about all that something horrible.”
“Is your new furniture at your house now?”
He nodded. “But I haven’t formally moved out of Mamma’s place.”
“So stay at your new place tonight, and it’ll make the permanent move less traumatic for her. Call and say that you are planning to be out very late and you’re not coming home.”
“Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Think of what?” Marty asked.
“Jack is going to stay in his new house tonight because Beulah is going to be in a tiff over what Agnes just did.”
“I wouldn’t go home either,” Marty said. “And it will ease the way for the real move.”
“We could bring Agnes and help you finish moving tomorrow evening. Beulah sure wouldn’t cry in front of her,” Trixie said.
“If things get too sappy, I just might take you up on that.” Jack grinned.
The rest of the day went fast. When it was time to close the shop, the kitchen was a complete mess, there was no food left in the pots, and the grill looked worse than it ever had. Trixie would throw up her hands and quit if Marty said they had to start serving dinner and supper every day. The buffet was wiped out at six o’clock and all the desserts were gone except one slice of black forest cake. Trixie boxed up it up and laid a card on the top that she’d made weeks before to give to Molly. She’d put it aside and never taken it to scrapbooking, but she could always make another one for Molly and the sentiment fit perfectly: You are one in a million!
She quickly glued a big yellow silk sunflower to the top of the box and added a long green paper stem and a couple of leaves. Then she trotted across the street and rang Agnes’s doorbell.
“What do you want?” Agnes grumbled when she opened the door.
“Special delivery for the old fart who should’ve been the celebrity this year.” Trixie handed it to her and hurried back across the street before Agnes could say a word.
The bathroom was steamed up. That meant Marty and Cathy had already had showers and Trixie could take as long as she wanted, and she did. When she finished, she flung open her closet doors and was pondering over which jeans to wear to the street dance when Marty knocked and stuck her head inside the room.
“Got a minute?” she asked.
“Got as many as you need. Next Chamber meeting, I’m going to see to it they’ll change the Jubilee to the first week in October so it won’t be so close to the Craft Fair. Or maybe we could combine the two,” Trixie said.
“Won’t happen. Not as long as Violet and the old dogs are in control. You don’t buck tradition in Cadillac. You know that, Trixie.”
“It’s worth a try.”
Trixie sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to her. “Sit down and spit it out. Never known you to beat around the bush. You sure you’re Marty or did you and Cathy trade places?”
“I’m mad as hell at you. Almost to the point of throwing you out of this house,” Marty said.
“Good Lord, what did I do?”
“You’ve been seeing Andy and sleeping with him. God, girl, don’t you remember how bad he hurt you? And you had the audacity to get mad at me over that damn vote that I had to do or else Mamma would come haunt me.”
“How did you find that out?”
“It doesn’t matter how I found out.”
“I’ve got a question for you before you throw me out. Why didn’t you tell me he was cheating on me even before Anna Ruth?”
“I didn’t know, Trixie. I knew he was a skirt chaser in high school and that he flirted, and it wouldn’t have surprised me to find out he was still up to his old games. But I didn’t know for sure and I wasn’t going to hurt you with gossip. I would have told you, I promise,” Marty said.
“I was seeing him. I was
sleeping with him. I’m not seeing him anymore, Marty. It’s over. I swear it is.”
“I don’t believe you. First time he winks, you’ll fall over backward and drag him down on top of you. I’m going to feed him poison and go to his funeral to be sure that he’s really dead. That’s the only way you’ll ever be rid of him. You can mourn and then finally move on.”
“You are a good friend. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’d shoot him for me! But I really am over him. That night with the shotgun was the last time he’s been here. I couldn’t have made it through the horrible times without y’all. I can’t explain but I really, truly am over Andy. He can do whatever he wants. I don’t give a shit. Now help me decide what to wear and please don’t throw me out of the house.”
Marty poked her on the arm. “You know something else. You’ve got another secret and you haven’t told me. I can see a gleam in your eye. Do you have a boyfriend? That’s why you are over Andy, isn’t it? You’ve got a new lover!”
Trixie cocked her head to one side. “Sorry, darlin’, I don’t have a new boyfriend and if I did have a secret, it wouldn’t be something like not voting for you.”
Marty’s eyes widened. “Then what is it?”
Trixie giggled. “I do not have another secret, I promise. You really would poison Andy, wouldn’t you?”
“Damn straight!” Marty stuck out her little finger and they did a pinkie promise like two little girls.
“Now do I get a pretty card like Cathy?”
“Maybe in a couple of days. What do you want your pretty card to say, Marty?”
“Men and catastrophes come and go. Girlfriends are forever,” she said.
“And Jack. Don’t forget that Jack is our friend too, even if he is a man.”
“Good friends are forever then,” Marty said. “That’s what I want it to say. Now let’s go to the dance. I’ve already spotted a new cowboy and he’s going to dance with me until the Jubilee shuts down.”
Chapter 22
Cathy really meant to turn her cell phone off, but in the aftermath of an all-day buffet at Clawdy’s, rushing to the Rib Joint to help John close up, and then a wonderful hour of passionate sex, she had fallen asleep. When it rang the next morning at eight o’clock, she thought the noise was the alarm. She reached across John’s body and slapped the off button on top of the clock. It rang again. She figured she’d hit the snooze button so she slapped the clock one more time. On the third ring, she realized it was her phone, rolled over, and grabbed it from the nightstand on her side of the bed.
“Hello,” she said groggily.
“Good morning!” a voice that sounded vaguely familiar chirped. “I’m calling about the wedding dress you have posted in the Denison newspaper. My boyfriend proposed last night and we’re getting married in three weeks and I’d love to see this dress. The picture shows it to be very basic, but my aunt and I can dress it up with some satin flowers, and we’re making our own detachable train with a big J embroidered in seed pearls on the train inside a heart.”
Cathy didn’t need a play-by-play of the woman’s whole life. She just wanted to sell the dang dress. “I live south of Sherman, Texas. How do you want to take care of payment and seeing it?”
“I live in the same area. Could we meet in the Walmart parking lot? The weatherman says it could rain so if you could come right away, that would be very nice.”
Cathy dropped the phone and scrambled to retrieve it before her buyer thought she’d hung up on her. She was finally awake enough to recognize Anna Ruth’s voice. Now what did she do? J meant that Andy Johnson had proposed to her. She’d seen them flirting like teenagers at the street dance, but surely Anna Ruth wasn’t that crazy. Andy’s track record had proven that he wasn’t capable of “forsaking all others.”
“What time?” Cathy asked.
“In an hour? I can’t wait to get to work on it.”
“I’ll be there.”
“How will I recognize you?”
“I’ll be the one standing beside my car holding up a wedding dress,” Cathy said quickly and hung up.
She dressed and left John sleeping soundly. Fifteen minutes later, she tiptoed upstairs, rapped gently on Trixie’s door, and whispered her name. When no one answered, she opened it a crack and looked inside. Trixie threw a pillow at the door and pulled the covers up over her head.
Cathy looked over and saw Marty’s door open so she poked her head inside and whispered, “Hey, are you awake?”
Marty growled.
Cathy went into her room and sat down on the edge of the bed. No way was she selling that dress to Anna Ruth before talking to either Trixie or Marty.
Trixie made her way to Cathy’s bed. She crawled up into the middle of it and sat cross-legged. “This had better be good for you to wake me up this early on Sunday morning. It’s too early to even get up for church.”
“I sold the wedding dress,” Cathy said quickly.
“Well, hot damn. Where’s it going?” Trixie came alive.
“Probably to the Cadillac Baptist Church and I’m ninety-nine point nine percent sure that Anna Ruth is the buyer and Andy is the groom. Is that going to be a problem? She didn’t recognize my voice when she called so I can just not show up at the Walmart parking lot.”
“Oh, yes, you will show up. I don’t care if she buys it. I don’t care if she’s marrying Andy. I’ll even go to the wedding with bells on my toes. Is that all?”
Cathy nodded.
Marty poked her head in the door. “What’s going on?”
“Cathy sold the wedding dress to Anna Ruth, who is going to marry Andy.”
“I’ll be damned.” Marty joined them on the bed. “I’ll even help carry it out to your car and then I’m going back to bed.”
It took all three of them to put the dress inside the car. Marty and Trixie both stood on the porch in their pajamas and waved as she drove away from Clawdy’s. She parked on the outer fringes of the lot, not far from the gas pumps, and waited until she saw Anna Ruth’s little red car whip in off the highway. She held up a hand.
Anna Ruth pulled in beside her and rolled down her window.
“Do you need help? Has that old car finally gone its last mile? I can call someone or come back, but right now I’m looking for a woman holding up a wedding dress. I shouldn’t even offer the way your aunt acted at the Jubilee yesterday, but I’m happy. Andy proposed last night and we’re getting married in three weeks. He’s gotten a job with the Bells Police Department and we are moving since I’m already teaching there and it’s going to be so wonderful and I don’t even have to give up the club.” True Anna Ruth style, she rambled on and on.
Cathy reached inside the car and held up the wedding dress.
“Oh!” Anna Ruth gasped.
“What do we do now?” Cathy asked.
“I love it, but I can’t. Who’s seen it?”
“Trixie, Marty, Darla Jean, and Aunt Agnes.”
“It’ll be six inches too long, but Aunt Annabel and I figured we’d use what we cut off to make flowers with little satin leaves for the train. And she’s already got the train cut out. It’s going to fasten onto the back of the dress with hook and eyes with the same satin as the flower leaves and… What am I going to do?”
“Your call,” Cathy said.
“I never did love Ethan, you know. I just thought I did. It’s always been Andy, but I don’t know about wearing a dress that was bought for Ethan’s bride. Somehow it doesn’t seem right.”
“Okay.” Cathy opened the car door to put it in the backseat.
“Wait! I’ll take it. No one will even recognize it when we get done dressing it up.”
The check she handed Cathy was made out for the exact amount she’d listed it for. At least she didn’t try to negotiate a cheaper price.
“But you have to promise me something,” she said.
It was kind of late to be asking for promises after she had the dress and Cathy already put the check in her purse.
“You got to promise not to tell everyone. I don’t want Violet to know for sure. She’d be a real pain about it,” Anna Ruth said.
“I promise.”
“Thank you, Cathy! Like they say in the movies, this never happened. Oh, and you’ll be getting your invitation for you and one guest in the mail next week. Club is giving us a shower. I don’t suppose you’ll want to come to it under the circumstances, but please come to the wedding. You do know that Violet is livid about that new boyfriend of yours, though, so be prepared.”
“Ain’t that nice.” Cathy smiled sweetly.
Anna Ruth carefully draped the dress over the passenger seat in her car and waved out the driver’s window as she drove off.
Cathy drove straight to McDonald’s, went inside, and ordered a cup of coffee. She carried it to a booth by the window. The first sip was hot enough to burn and it hurt so she wasn’t dreaming. She’d just sold the dress to Anna Ruth who was really marrying Andy in three weeks. That made it the first Saturday in December, the very day she was supposed to have married Ethan.
All of Cadillac would be busy either with preparations for Andy’s leaving the force, the wedding, or at least the gossip. Things couldn’t get any crazier.
Her phone rang. She checked the ID before she answered and said, “You are supposed to be asleep.”
Trixie giggled. “Andy just called Jack and he called me so he could be the first to tell me that Andy is marrying Anna Ruth. Jack is going to step up into Andy’s job. Did she buy the dress?”
“Oh, yeah, but believe me, when she gets done with it, you’d never know it was the one I bought. And we’re sworn to secrecy about it. If Agnes finds out, she’ll taunt Violet, and even though Anna Ruth is a pain in my ass and I’m still mad at Andy, I don’t want to pop her bubble on her wedding day. Andy can have that job all on his own and I’m real glad that she’ll be in Bells when it happens so she won’t come whining to me. That’s not very nice, is it?” Cathy asked.
“I can’t believe you said ass. And darlin’, you don’t have to be nice all the time.”
* * *
Andy had one more bridge to cross before he moved to the other side of the county and went to work in Bells as chief of police. Whether he burned the bridge or rebuilt it was totally up to Trixie. But it had to be done on Monday morning before Anna Ruth got involved with the wedding preparations. After that it would be impossible to bring the wedding train to a screeching halt and jump off.
What Happens in Texas Page 25
