“Luck of the Irish? What do you reckon she meant by that?”
“I don’t know, but she ran off all excited. I folded her laundry and took it over to the house. Did y’all get a maid?” Raynelle settled into her recliner and pulled the lever to elevate her feet. “By the way, when I die I want you and Rosemary to make sure I get buried in this chair. You got that?”
“Sure, Mama.” From the corner of her eye Abigail saw movement underneath the dining room table, a long white tail like Clementine’s. “What in the world?”
“Jackie brought me a little something. Said she thought about me every time she looked at that cat on account of both of us having an eye put out by somebody with a mean streak. I told her I didn’t need a cat, but she said that wasn’t the point, that this cat needed me ’cause I could show her how to bounce back.”
Abigail felt a lump in her throat as her eyes misted.
“You got something special with that girl, Abigail. Don’t you go throwing it away. If money gets too tight, you both pack up and move into that back bedroom.”
“And do what with the Sumter Zoo, Mama? The last thing you need is for Jackie to be bringing a new dog or cat home every night. Something’s got to give.”
“You,” her mother said, pointing a finger and leaving a swirling trail of smoke. “You’re the one that’s got to give. Everybody’s got their vices, Abigail. Some people drink too much, some are lazy and good for nothing, and the worst ones can put you in the hospital. The only thing Jackie’s got is a big heart for animals and a low tolerance for rednecks. Would you love her like you do if she wasn’t like that?”
No, she realized, shaking her head. And if Jackie surrendered those poor creatures to their ominous fate, a little piece of her would die with them, and Abigail couldn’t bear that. “I love her like she is, Mama. I just don’t know how to handle all the chaos, and I can’t stand to feel like we’re running backwards on payday.”
“That’s your vice, Abigail. You always see your glass as half empty. Being happy ain’t getting what you want. It’s wanting what you already got. Quit pining for something perfect, ’cause I’m here to tell ya, there ain’t no such thing.” She ground out her cigarette and folded her arms across her chest, harrumphing for good measure. “Now get on home and fix this before something happens and it breaks for good.”
***
Jackie could hardly contain herself when she saw the familiar red Escort backed into the carport. She hadn’t allowed herself to think—not even for one second—that Abigail wouldn’t come back one day, but seeing her here tonight meant she’d never have to wonder why. It was because they loved each other.
The first thing she noticed in the kitchen was the cat bowls back on the kitchen counter, which meant Abigail had given Wally and Sweet Pea the run of the house. That was confirmed by the sound of toenails clacking on the hardwood floor as both dogs barreled toward her.
“No!” she said firmly, raising a finger to stop the well-trained Wally in his tracks and sending the timid Sweet Pea to her side with submission. She dropped to one knee and petted both simultaneously, shushing their excited yips and growls.
Abigail appeared in the hallway dressed in floral boxers and a tank top, a sure sign she planned to stay for the night. “I’m sorry I left, Jackie.”
“I’m sorry I made you feel like you had to do that to get my attention. I care about your feelings, Abigail, more than anything else in the world.”
“And you care about all these animals. That’s who you are, and that’s who I love.”
Jackie rose and caught her in an embrace, and they simply held each other for what felt like ten minutes before she finally spoke. “We’re going to see some big changes around here, sweetheart. No more animals unless we both agree.”
Abigail broke abruptly and gripped her forearms. “What happened to Danny Boy? Please tell me you didn’t—”
Jackie cut her off with the story of the joyous reunion between Casey and his dad. “And Mo and Molly have their own big fenced-in yard at Hank Fuller’s now with lots of kids. Then there’s Clementine. You won’t believe where she ended up.”
“You’re right. I’ve seen it myself and I still don’t believe it. My mother always said cats were good for one thing—oven mitts. Wait’ll she finds outs Clementine thinks she’s a pillow.”
“I didn’t tell her that part.” She looked at her watch. “But I’d say she probably knows it by now. Fortunately I made our ‘No Returns’ policy quite clear.”
Abigail took her hand and pulled her down the hall to their bedroom, where boxes and bags of her belongings were stacked haphazardly around the room. “I’ll put all this away tomorrow, but tonight I just want to love you up one side and down the other and then fall asleep in your arms.”
Jackie kicked the door shut and fell entwined onto the bed. “And one other thing that’s gonna change, Abigail. We’ll get us a house…a nice big one with lots of land for the dogs to run. I promise you.”
“I know, baby. But until we do, I’ll be happy just to be wherever you are.” Her deft fingers worked loose the fly on Jackie’s jeans and in no time she was claiming her slick, hot prize. “Trust me, parts of me are very happy just to be where parts of you are.”
***
Abigail stumbled over their strewn clothes to the bedroom door, and in the split second before both dogs scrambled to their feet, she glimpsed Sweet Pea lounging peacefully against Wally’s neck. Now that the hyper beagles were gone, maybe the little dog wouldn’t feel so intimidated, especially since Wally was the canine version of a teddy bear. No reason at all they couldn’t keep both dogs.
In the living room, Mango was content in his spot on the couch, but Tao glared down from the top of the entertainment center. “Don’t look so pissed. It was just for one night, you spoiled rotten baby.” Both cats came running to the kitchen when she rattled their chow bag, their night alone at least momentarily forgiven.
As the coffee brewed, Jackie shuffled into the kitchen and dropped her sleepy head on Abigail’s shoulder. “It sucks you have to go to work so early. I think you should quit and go back to school full-time. Or do whatever else you want. Take some time off and think about it.”
It was no use bringing up the impracticalities of that, but it was sweet for Jackie to suggest it because it showed she really had been listening after all and obviously cared about what she wanted. “It’s okay. We’ll get there eventually.” And if they didn’t, so what? Her mom was right that being happy with each other was what mattered most.
By the time Abigail was ready to leave, Jackie had already washed their breakfast dishes and swept up after the cats. But that wasn’t the only thing about her that seemed peculiar this morning. She was smiling a lot, like she had something up her sleeve. As long as it wasn’t another dog or cat…
“Hope my car starts today.”
“Something tells me it will.”
Abigail stepped out on the porch and her jaw dropped. There in the carport sat a brand spanking new torch red Mustang convertible. Jackie’s hand snaked over her shoulder from behind dangling the keys.
She wanted to scream, but didn’t dare because her first words were sure to be “We can’t afford…” Still, the last thing in the world either of them needed was a five-hundred-dollar-a-month car payment. “I can’t believe you went and traded the truck on this. I don’t see how we’re…ever going to…haul off the trash in something this nice.”
“I didn’t trade my truck on this. I traded my truck for a vista blue Ford Ranger with shift-on-the-fly four-wheel drive. This here baby’s yours.”
“I…I don’t know what to say.” Except that they’d both have to work three jobs each to pay for new cars. Maybe Jackie didn’t understand her after all.
“Two.”
“What?”
“Nineteen.”
“Huh?” What on earth? “Two-nineteen. That’s my birthday.”
“Twenty-eight.”
“And th
at’s how old I am.”
“Twelve…twenty-one…thirty.”
And now Jackie’s birthday and age. She had clearly lost her mind.
Jackie bounced off the porch to open the car door for her. “Now when you get to work, you should put in your two-week notice. We’re going to be busy getting the Ashby farm all set to move into.”
“Honey, I don’t know what’s going on. How are we going to…” No, she wasn’t going to harp about money again. “I’m a little…confused.”
“That’s because I haven’t given you the last two numbers. Ten.”
Ten. What was ten? She shook her head.
“Million.”
Ten. Million. Ten million. Ten million? Their birthdays, their ages and ten million. That didn’t make any sense unless…unless. Her mouth started moving but nothing came out. Jackie was grinning wildly and holding up an official-looking letter from the Tennessee Lottery Commission.
“We did it, baby. Ten million dollars…six if I take it all in one lump sum, but I thought I’d take a half million dollars for the next twenty years, since that way I won’t blow through it doing one stupid thing after another.”
Ten million dollars. “Jackie, you’re rich.”
“Not just me, Abigail. Us. We can quit worrying about scraping up money to pay the gas bill or how we’re going to get somewhere in a car that won’t start. The guy at the lottery said it really wasn’t all that much money, but you and me…we won’t have to struggle anymore. You can go back to school and do whatever makes you happy. And we can help your mama, and Rosemary and AJ too.”
“What about you, Jackie? A new truck, a new farm. And then what?”
“It takes more than just things to make people really happy, Abigail. You have to do what you love, and feel good about yourself every day when you get out of bed.” Her eyes lit up and she started talking fast, like she was dreaming out loud. “I want to get Oscar to help me fix up a nice big kennel out on the farm, just something for the overflow so more of the animals can find a good home. I know I shouldn’t have brought Danny Boy home like that, but I wish you’d seen how happy they were when he finally saw his daddy again. What if I’d had to tell that guy he was a day late? It makes me sick to my stomach just to think about it.”
Her mother was right about Jackie. She had the biggest heart in all of Tennessee.
“We’re millionaires, Abigail.”
She threw her arms around Jackie’s neck and kissed her over and over, not caring one iota that she was going to be late for work. “I was already a millionaire, sweetheart. I just didn’t know it.”
The End
If you’d like to read more about life in Jackie & Abigail’s neck of the Tennessee woods, you’ll find the story of Beth Hester & Audie Pippin in Sumter Point . More info at my website, www.kgmacgregor.com.
Luck of the Irish Page 7
