by Luanne Jones
Will hadn’t stuck around. Well, he was intended to be the tornado, the thing to get her life going again. No one can live in the eye of the storm. Rita knew that too well because she had done it too long.
She had let her friends’ lives circulate around her, taking far too much comfort from their chaos. She needed her own chaos, and Wild Billy West had brought that to her. It was right he should go. The work of putting her life back together, of finally following in her mama’s wobbling footsteps, was Rita’s alone to make.
Yes, her mama’s footsteps. Following her mother’s example by standing on her own two feet, not by walking away from the people she loved. She would always be there for her friends and family, but she would no longer put her own life on hold for them.
She unlocked her door, went inside, and threw her high heels on the bed. There, all on her own in a big, strange town where no one needed her to hold the world together, she vowed that the next set of footwear she’d put on would be her walking shoes.
“You’re no fun anymore.” Dina, an ex-Miss Arkansas, a constant fixture on the beauty-pageant circuit and a sometime dinner date of Will’s pushed her food away practically untouched.
“What do you expect out of a selfish, donkey-headed bastard?” He considered pushing the plate right back under her upturned nose. How he ever put up with her ordering the most expensive thing on a menu so she could take one bite and groan over how much she’d have to diet to make up for it, he’d never understand.
“Don’t talk that way about yourself.” She reached across the candlelit table and put her hand on his.
Okay, so he had to pay a fortune for her not to eat, at least he could count on the woman to feed his ego.
“When you call yourself things like that, it doesn’t reflect well on me.” Her hesitation before she laughed made him realize she was only partly joking.
“Thanks for the support.” He pulled away from her touch, picked up his fork, then set it down again and rubbed his forehead.
“You used to be a lot more fun.” She put her hands in her lap.
This was her “I’m pouting at you and you better say or do or buy something to rectify that immediately if you want to get lucky tonight” look.
“Yeah, well.” He tossed his napkin onto the table. “I used to be a lot of things.” Like satisfied with meaningless sex with women so skinny they don’t make a dent in my mattress and so self-involved they don’t leave an impression on my heart. “You ready to go?”
“So soon?” She ran her finger along the rim of the wineglass. “What do you have in mind?”
“Making an early night of it.” He signaled for the check.
“Oh?” She leaned over the table, her breasts falling forward in her scrap of a dress. “Maybe you are still fun after all.”
“Maybe you were right the first time.” He handed a credit card to the waiter without looking at the check. “Listen, Dina, this…”
A tiny tremor from his pager interrupted his train of thought.
“What is it?”
“Hang on.” He held his hand up as he pressed the light to better read the message. “It’s my sister. She wants me to call her. Do you mind?”
“Go ahead, call her back.” She turned in her chair and pulled a small silver object from her beaded handbag. “Here, use my phone even. Make the call right from the table. Don’t mind me. It’s not like you’re actually all here participating with me on this date anyway.”
The guilt trap. It set his teeth on edge. Was there any woman in his life who did not employ it to get her way with him?
Rita. The answer sprang into his mind so fast he had no time to counteract the effect of her memory on his emotions. That happened all too often, but he had decided he could learn to live with it. What other choice did he have?
“If you don’t mind, then.” He took her phone, oozing charm like he had no clue she had only offered it to try to manipulate him. “I really need to call her back. It might be about my mother.”
“You and your family.” Dina rolled her eyes. “You are so tied to them. It’s really not becoming in a man your age.”
“You calling me a mama’s boy?” He flipped the phone open, laughing at the very notion.
“Worse. I’m saying you’re a family man.”
“Me?” He laughed again, only this time the humor wasn’t so heartfelt. “I guess it may seem like that since I spent so much time home this summer.”
“Home? Since when did you start calling Hooterville home?”
Good question. When had Hellon become home again to him? He wasn’t sure. Still, sitting here in this overpriced, soulless restaurant with a woman who cared only about the level of fun he could provide her, it sounded so right. “The town’s name is Hellon. It’s where I was raised and where my family still lives. Why shouldn’t I think of it as my home?”
“I don’t care if it’s Mayberry and Andy, Aunt Bea, Opie, and the gang are all your next of kin. You’ve never thought of anyplace but Memphis as home as long as I’ve known you.”
Memphis? Home? He punched in Jillie’s private number. “Look, maybe I just reconnected with my roots a little more lately. What’s so bad about that?”
“Lately?” She rolled her glass in her hand so that the wine glowed in the candlelight. “When we first met you led me to believe any ties you had with your family were…tenuous at best.”
The phone rang in his ear. “So?”
“So? It’s hard enough for a girl to compete for a man’s attention with all the other beautiful women around.”
“It’s not a competition.” If it was, it would be one competition where a woman like Dina couldn’t even place as runner-up. Not against his family and certainly not compared to…
“Hello?” Jillie picked up on the third ring.
He knew she would. Will smiled. Mama had a rule that no lady ever answered the phone sooner than the third or later than the fifth ring. Something about perception and manners. “Hey, girl. What’s up?”
“You have to check on your mother tonight,” Dina grumbled.
“Will? Wow, that was fast.”
“I thought something might be wrong with Mama.”
“Just now coming to that conclusion?” Jillie sighed. “No, Mama’s right as rain.”
“Would that be acid rain?” They shared a laugh.
“A week ago you had to cancel a date because your sister rolled into town uninvited,” Dina droned on, making sure she hit the highlights loud enough for even Jillie to hear. “Insisting you meet some man named Paul.”
“Who are you with? Where are you? Are you doing something important?”
“I often ask myself those same questions.” What he’d intended as a quip rang quietly poignant in his own ears. He cleared his throat. “That’s nothing. Go on, why did you call?”
“Nothing? Are you referring to me as nothing?” Dina slapped her napkin down.
“Would you hang on just a sec, Jillie?” He covered the mouthpiece. “Can we have this conversation later—like when I’m not already having another conversation?”
His date bristled the way that only a gorgeous, pampered Southern belle can. It was an art form in itself and often left lesser men trembling and bewildered. Will skewered one of her broiled shrimp with his fork and took a bite, saying as he ate, “I won’t be long.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “You are not the same man I remember having such a good time with last spring.”
He started to argue that point, then stopped and looked at the phone. He looked at the food that last spring he thought was the finest in the city but which he now found bland and pretentious. Then he looked at the woman across from him who looked like she’d just fallen out of the pages of a magazine and would just as easily fall into bed with him, expecting nothing more than a good time from it. All he could really see, all he had been able to focus on these last six weeks since he’d returned to Memphis, was Rita.
“You know, you’re right, Dina
. I am not the same man.”
The waiter placed the receipt in front of Will.
Dina gave the young man a sly once-over before he got away. “What do they say? The first step in getting help is admitting you need it?” She beamed him an aren’t-I-clever smile.
Still holding the phone, he grunted and pulled a pen from the pocket inside his jacket. “The man you remember from last summer would have hung up on his sister and spent the rest of the evening trying to get back in your good graces—not to mention your bed.”
“That’s still not an impossibility, provided you’re willing to spoil me with a lot of—”
“Bullshit.”
“I heard that,” Jillie said, even though she was still waiting for him to talk to her again. “What’s going on there, Will?”
“Sorry, Jillie, hang on just a second longer. I was having a…moment of clarity.”
“That’s not boy-code for something I don’t want to know about, is it?”
“No. Just bear with me a little bit longer.” He lowered the mouthpiece.
Dina flipped her hair back so fast he marveled it didn’t give her whiplash. “What did you just say to me?”
“You heard me. This game between us. It’s nothing more than a big steaming pile of—”
“Wasn’t everything to your liking, sir?” The waiter, who had come back for the signed receipt looked very concerned that Will might use the word again.
Will smiled. “Everything was fine. Or will be when you call the lady a taxi.”
“A taxi? You can’t just send me home in a taxi.”
“If you prefer the bus…”
She stood and held her hand out. “That’s my phone.”
“I’ll wrap this up before you leave.”
“A gentleman would drive me home.”
Will stood, too. “Good. If you find a gentleman hanging around, that’ll save me the cab fare.”
She yanked her arm away when he tried to take it to escort her out of the dining room.
“Don’t act all high-and-mighty with me now. You’ve taken your fair share of late-night cab rides both to and from my house; you’re just mad because this one was my idea.”
She gave him an icy glare over her shoulder. “You really aren’t the same man.”
“No, I’m not. And I do apologize for not taking you home, but you see I’m heading in the other direction.”
“Your house is not in the opposite direction of mine.”
“No, but my home is.”
“Your…?”
“Jillie?”
“Uh-huh?”
“I’m guessing at this point you didn’t page me for anything urgent.”
Dina whisked past him to the ladies’ room.
“No, I…I…well, I shouldn’t have even bothered you really. Knowing how you left things here and all.”
“Is this about Rita?”
“Given that you told me not to bring up ‘that name’ I was going to say it’s about the Palace.”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s just…well, what with the grand opening tomorrow and Rita…”
The taxi pulled up front. “Okay, hon, I have to go. Whatever you have to tell me, I hope it can wait.”
“How long?”
“Say, ninety minutes, give or take?”
“You’re coming to Hellon?”
“Should I come out to the house first or—”
“Go straight to Rita’s, you might still catch her there.”
“Catch her? What are you—”
“Bye-bye, Billygoat. I can’t stand here blabbing. I need to go make sure Rita doesn’t run for cover.”
“Run for cover?”
“Yeah, sounds like her very own tornado is blowing back into town.”
“Have I done the right thing?” Rita asked.
“I have done the right thing.” Cozie’s voice seemed to boom in the bare-walled kitchenette. “Remember, you are what you say you are.”
“Then I am…” Rita stared at the few boxes of things she planned to take with her from her old apartment. “Out of here.”
“Good for you.” Cozie came up from behind and wrapped both long arms around her in a welcome hug. She laid her cheek against the side of Rita’s head. “Did you make one last sweep of the place to make sure you’re not leaving anything you want to keep?”
What could she have left here? The idea of walking through this room, dredging up the memories of the summer gone by, did not sit well. It was never a home to her. She had left most of her things in storage when Pernel’s hasty sale of their old house had forced her into this cramped place.
“You do it, please? I’m afraid if I head anywhere but for that door, it will take a backhoe to get me out of here.”
“You got it. But you know, even if you did leave some belongings behind, I think the new landlords wouldn’t mind you coming back now and then.”
“Careful what you wish for,” Rita warned, as her friend headed off toward the bedroom.
“Rita? Cozie? Y’all still up there?”
“Jillie?” Rita went to the stairway door. “What are you doing here? Are you lost?”
“Lost?” Jillie’s beautiful curls bounced as she climbed the steps.
“The grand reopening isn’t until tomorrow morning.”
“I know that.”
“Did you also know that people are working here?” Rita put her shoulder to the doorframe. “If you come up, you may have to lift a carton or tote a suitcase back down.”
“I’ll risk it.” Jillie pressed by, taking long enough to eyeball Rita’s softer haircut and new color—which was actually her old color. “Where’s Cozette?”
“Right here.” She emerged from the other room with Rita’s old Dixie Belle Duchess crown in her hand. “Rita, don’t forget this. You left it hanging on the vanity mirror.”
“Thanks.” She took it and set it on top of her purse. “Well, one more load in the car and…”
“You’re not driving to Memphis tonight, are you?”
“Well, I was. Just to take a load of things to the new place. I’ll be back first thing tomorrow in plenty of time for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.”
“Oh, but you don’t want to go tonight.”
“Jillie, Rita’s on the brink of a whole new adventure. College in Memphis, a new apartment…why should she hang around Hellon another minute longer than she has to?”
“Be…cause…because…” Jillie’s dark eyes darted back and forth. “Um, because…”
Cozie put one hand on her hip and braced the other against the counter. “Yeah, we got that part.”
Rita crossed her arms. “Jillie, what are you up to?”
“Not a thing. Not one damn thing, Miss Suspicious. Can’t a person feel…can’t she…can’t I…”
“Oh. I get it.” Cozie pushed off from the counter and put her hand on Jillie’s shoulder. “Without sarcasm you’re virtually speechless, aren’t you?”
Jillie glared at the older woman.
“Don’t you get it, Rita? Your oldest friend in the world just isn’t quite ready for you to leave.”
“Is that it, Jillie?”
She nodded her agreement. “That’ll do.”
“What this calls for is some kind of grand gesture. Something we can take away with us—to mark the occasion and celebrate the conclusions of what proved to be a life-altering summer.” Cozie spread her hands wide.
“We’re having a party tomorrow,” Rita reminded her.
“Not a party, a ceremony.”
Jillie slashed her hand through the air. “I refuse to dance naked in the moonlight.”
Naked in the moonlight. The memories flooded back of joking with Cozie, Jillie, and Miss Peggy, then of the tender time with Will. Rita swallowed. Her eyelids fluttered to hold back the promise of tears. She could cry her eyes out all the way to Memphis and every night after she got there if that’s what it took. Tonight, Cozie was right. They needed ceremony,
they needed to celebrate. “Jillie, why don’t you go see if your mama will join us?”
“My mother? Dancing in the moonlight? She’ll never do that, even in her best pegnoir, much less buck nekkid.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure.” Cozie laughed.
“Maybe she won’t dance, but she will drink champagne.” Rita wiggled her eyebrows. “Go get her. Cozie, you go downstairs and steal a bottle of you know what from the kitchen.”
As they scrambled to their missions, Jillie asked, “What are you going to do?”
Rita plunked the glittering tiara on her head and smiled. “I am going to finish loading my car. That way when we all meet in the back parking lot—so nobody can see us and spread the word we’re up to no good—I will be ready to march headlong into my new life.”
“Well, we’ve toasted everything but marshmallows, what now, girls?” Miss Peggy, who was indeed wearing her best pegnoir as Jillie had roused her from an early bedtime, waited for a refill from Cozette.
“Think you’ve drunk enough to dance, Mama?”
“Who needs to drink for that?” Miss Peggy spread her arms and swayed gracefully from side to side.
They all laughed.
It felt good to laugh. It had been a while for Rita, ever since…“I want to thank you all for coming out here with me tonight. I needed this.”
“I needed this, too,” Miss Peggy announced. “No one ever comes to my door and invites me to come out under the stars anymore. Thank you girls for including a foolish old lady in your moment.” Hardly half a heartbeat went by before she added, “And if my daughter tries to tack ’Mama you’re not that old’ onto my charming old and foolish lady remark, I will chase her through the street of Hellon with my cane flailing.”
“I was going to say you’re not that foolish, but now…” Jillie drew her mother into a sideways hug. “Oh, hell, you’re really not near as foolish as you pretend to be and nowhere near as foolish as I used to think you were.”
“Don’t you dare make me cry, young lady.” Miss Peggy sniffled.
