Complicated

by Kristen Ashley

  He was a man who wanted what those he loved wanted.

  After the life I’d lived, how had I gotten so lucky?

  I lifted my hand, pressed it against his shoulder, watching myself do that, seeing my new ring wink at me. Then I slid it to his neck and curled it around, looking back at him.

  “I want to sing ‘At Last’ to you. And ‘Stay.’ And ‘Cold.’ And ‘Glitter in the Air.’ And then I’ll cut the set short because I wanna go home and make love with my fiancé. Does that work for you?”

  “Absolutely.”

  I tipped my head back and swayed closer to him.

  “You’ve made me very happy, Hixon Drake.”

  “That makes me happy, Greta, but just to say, sweetheart, even before that you returned the favor.” He touched his nose to mine and finished, “In spades.”

  “No,” I replied and saw his eyes smile.

  “Uh, baby, I’d know.”

  “No you wouldn’t. Because you didn’t grow up like me. You didn’t live a life like mine. You got kicked in the teeth at forty-two, then you found me. So this match, smokey, no doubt about it, I win.”

  Both his hands cupped my jaws before he growled, “I’ll give you that win, angel.”

  I smiled at him.

  He kissed me.

  People around us started whooping and cheering again.

  And for the first time in my life, with not one thing dragging on it, weighing it heavy, I was happy.

  Oh, I’d won.

  Yeah, I’d won.

  Spectacularly.

  Mrs. Swanson was in my chair and I was sectioning a piece of her hair to put a roller in, doing this wearing a She Told Me So T-shirt with an arrow pointed in a way that, where I usually stood by my chair, always pointed to Lou.

  Lou had given it to me in the back room the day before.

  I’d laughed my butt off.

  This being after we’d hugged for a long time because my bestest bud had given it to me and then promptly burst out crying.

  Needless to say, Lou was happy that Hix asked me to marry him.

  Lou had told me the shirt was a joke. I didn’t have to wear it.

  I totally wore it.

  I looked up from Mrs. Swanson’s hair to see Joyce standing close to me.

  “Told you,” she said softly, “that man never struck me as stupid. He knew, the good that dropped in his lap, he’d be fool to let it go. He knew, Greta.”

  “Yeah,” I whispered, staring in her eyes.

  “I cannot say how happy I am,” she shared with me, still talking quietly. “Don’t know if I’m happier for Hixon, he got a good girl like you, or you, that you got what you deserved. But I’m happy. Whole town’s happy, darlin’. Watchin’ you two find each other through all that garbage was like watchin’ a dream come true.”

  “You’re gonna make me cry, Joyce,” I warned.

  “None a’ that,” she dismissed, stared at me some more then nodded her head sharply. “Right,” she stated briskly. “I’m off. Six weeks, Lou?”

  Lou had to clear her throat before she replied, “You’re in my schedule, Joyce.”

  Joyce said nothing.

  She just took off.

  I looked to Lou.

  She grinned at me.

  Mrs. Swanson sniffled before she asked, “Greta, sweetie, I forgot my hankie. You got a tissue?”

  I looked at her in the mirror to see she had tears brimming in her eyes.

  I gave her a gentle smile and went for the tissue box. “Right here, Mrs. Swanson.”

  “You’re a dear,” she murmured, taking the tissue I offered.

  I sectioned more hair thinking how odd it was, a girl who didn’t dream, living a dream come true.

  Then I rolled Mrs. Swanson’s hair and tried to do it well, even if my engagement ring kept taking my attention.

  “I cannot be-freakin’-believe this day,” Hix groused as we walked into the mudroom from the garage.

  I tried not to burst out laughing.

  Instead, I murmured, “Hey, boy. How’s your day been, boy?” to Rocky, Andy and the girls’ dog that we rescued from the shelter, a mature pup, eight years old when we got him last summer, part lab, part they didn’t know what. A dog we said was Andy and the girls’ but he was Hix and mine and not only because we were the ones around the most to take care of him.

  “And I cannot freakin’ tell you how much I need a bourbon,” he went on.

  I could imagine.

  I still found it funny.

  I let Hix help me off with my coat. He took it and hooked it on the hooks by the door before he shrugged off his own.

  I wandered into the kitchen to get him his bourbon with Rocky doing what Rocky did whenever Hix and I separated.

  He stood there uncertain whether to hang with one or follow the other.

  I’d thrown my beaded clutch on the island and was in the process of walking to the cupboard where we kept the liquor when Hix and Rocky joined me.

  “Porch?” I asked, raising a brow at him.

  “Gin?” he asked back, glaring at me.

  I kept trying not to laugh. “For me, it’s not a gin night, darlin’. I didn’t deliver a baby on a dance floor. It’s a wine night though.”

  He went to the wine rack in the pantry and decreed, “Donna’s fired on Monday.”

  I barely suppressed my giggle.

  “Greta, this shit isn’t funny.”

  I pulled down his bottle of bourbon and looked to him.

  “Ashlee gave birth on the dance floor during the reception at Bets’s wedding,” he told me something I knew.

  My body jolted as I chased the laughter back into it, which wanted so desperately to bust out of it.

  He recounted the whole thing. “Hal lost his mind. Donna couldn’t stop laughing long enough to help. And I think Larry went somewhere and puked.”

  I couldn’t help it, I started sniggering.

  “I’ve never seen a baby come that fast,” he declared.

  “She’d told me earlier she was feeling strange. I think she was in labor,” I shared.

  “That’s insane.”

  I shrugged, smiling hugely at him.

  “What woman dances while she’s in labor?” he asked me irritably.

  “Well, obviously, Ashlee,” I answered.

  His eyes narrowed. “You didn’t help either.”

  “I was busy holding her hand,” I pointed out.

  “Thank God for Andy or I think Hal would have passed out,” he muttered, turning back to the pantry.

  I smiled, turning back to his bourbon, and I finished with it thinking he was right. Hal had descended into panic and Andy had jumped right in and calmed him right down.

  I waited until he opened a bottle and poured my wine.

  He handed it to me, murmuring, “Go on out. I’ll get your sweater and be out in a minute.”

  I nodded. “Thanks, baby.”

  Rocky and I went out with my wine and Hix’s bourbon (Rocky was never uncertain about porch time, he always came right out with me). I settled myself in an Adirondack chair and Rocky explored the front yard long enough to do his business before he came back and laid down on my high-heeled feet.

  Hix joined me carrying my sweater, but he’d changed into jeans and a thermal, which I thought was a good call, considering his trousers, shirt and tie had newborn baby all over them.

  I pulled on the cardigan as Hix sat down beside me, tipping up his chin toward the street at the same time Rocky’s head came up and also turned toward the street.

  I shifted my attention that way and called, “Hey, Nicki.”

  “Hey there, Greta. Hix.”

  Rocky woofed softly.

  Nicki’s dog strained at the leash to get to Rocky.

  Hix said nothing but he adjusted his scowl long enough for Nicki to pass with her dog.

  “Uh, you know, since you’re in a bad mood . . .” I began.

  Hix’s scowl returned full force as he turned his eyes to me.
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  I beat back my smile. “Corinne and I chatted at the wedding. She’s broken up with Jake.”

  Hix looked back at the street. “Good. That kid’s a tool. Never liked him.”

  Since the boyfriend she got her sophomore year, and with Corinne now into her senior one, she’d been through three, Jake being four.

  Hix never liked any of them.

  “Okay, well, that wasn’t bad, as such, but . . . uh, Donna shared a little bit about Becker talking to the Feds about a deal.”

  He threw back some bourbon then declared to the street. “Woman’s totally fired on Monday.”

  “Hix—”

  He looked to me. “She shouldn’t be talking to you about that stuff, Greta.”

  “She didn’t say much. But she’s worried because you’ve been moody.”

  “And again, I’m moody at work, she doesn’t talk to my wife about it.”

  “I’m her stylist, darlin’, except for talking about stuff with you, it’s very close to the sanctity of the confessional even if she’s not in my chair but instead at a wedding where a woman gave birth on a dance floor.”

  “Babe, you rat out people all the time, which, I’ll note, you just did, sharin’ that shit Donna gave to you.”

  I grinned. “If they share with the sheriff’s wife, they deserve me being a snitch.”

  Hix didn’t grin.

  He looked back to the street but at least he did it with his mouth quirking.

  “Are you okay with this Becker stuff?” I asked.

  “Him makin’ a deal, ratting on bigger players in order to get his ass in WITSEC after we finally shut down his shit in this county? No. Do I want that house of cards to collapse? Yes. Do I want Becker to live cush after he’s gotten away with his crap for decades? No.” He took another sip and muttered, “But I got no choice. It’s outta my hands.”

  I reached out and wrapped my fingers around his forearm. “Sorry, baby.”

  He pulled out of my hold but only to take over, placing the back of my hand on the arm of the chair and then running his fingers along the insides of mine. He did it automatically, his eyes were still aimed at the street, but he did it having so much practice, he didn’t have to watch to do it expertly.

  “I’m glad Hal finally got his head out of his ass,” he whispered eventually.

  I was in the know about the fact that Hal had not been a very good husband, until for some reason things broke loose after Hix gave him a talking to during the investigation of Nat Calloway’s murder.

  Or maybe it had just been Nat dying, leaving Faith to face a life without her husband.

  Whatever it was, he’d gotten rid of his women and recommitted to his marriage.

  Now they had a baby.

  And when Ashlee came and got her hair done, she didn’t look sad anymore.

  “Me too,” I whispered back.

  “Hope called,” he shared.

  “Yeah?” I asked.

  “Jep and Marie want us at Thanksgiving. Andy’s invited too, of course. Your call, sweetheart. It’s a big day and important to you and Andy just like it is to everybody.” I felt his eyes so I stopped looking at our hands and looked to him. “I know you and Hope manage to keep it good. I also know you two aren’t the best of friends. So if you’ll be uncomfortable, we’ll say no.”

  “Shaw’ll be home and it’d be good we don’t make him split too much of his time. So maybe we can meet them there for pie at the end but maybe go over to Lou’s or have Tommy and Toast over here and do our own thing before we go.”

  “That’ll work.”

  I smiled at him.

  He stopped stroking my fingers, threaded his through mine and held on.

  “Sheriff,” I heard and looked to the street. “Hey, Greta. Nice night.”

  “Year’s getting old. We need to enjoy them while they last, Joe,” I called.

  “I hear that,” our neighbor replied, nodding to us both and continuing to walk his dog.

  I sipped my wine.

  My husband held my hand and sipped his bourbon.

  We let the peace of our street melt away the craziness of the day.

  “I want more bourbon. I’ll get you more wine. I do that, you get upstairs. I’ll bring up the drinks. But I wanna fuck my wife.”

  My lady parts spasmed and my gaze shot to Hix to watch him down the rest of his drink.

  When his gaze came to mine, I didn’t hesitate offering him my still half-full glass.

  He didn’t take it.

  He pulled me up and then he pulled me into the house.

  Rocky followed.

  Our dog and I stopped with Hix as he let me go to close and lock the door.

  “Headboard?” I asked when I got his attention.

  “We’ll see,” he answered and took my glass.

  I grinned a lazy grin.

  He watched me then growled a low growl.

  Once I heard that, still in my heels and dress from the wedding, I sashayed across the living room and up the stairs, knowing my husband’s eyes were on my ass, even under my cardie.

  I eventually got headboard.

  I got a bunch of other stuff too.

  It was magnificent.

  It would be.

  Because I got it all from Hix.

  Hixon

  Hix stood by the mantle of his fireplace, looking at one of the many framed pictures resting there.

  The one that had his attention was the biggest of the lot.

  Greta was wearing a long-sleeved, drop-waist, filmy, ivory gown. The sleeves where see-through. There was an elegant drape at the neckline, not low, but wide, exposing her chest and collarbone all the way to the points of her shoulders.

  No beads. No pearls. No bling.

  Just that.

  Her wedding dress.

  He was standing beside her wearing a suit, his arm around her, but his other arm was around Corinne who was pressed to his other side and he had his head turned and bent, kissing his daughter’s hair.

  Andy was at Greta’s other side but she didn’t have her arm around him. She had one around Hix and her other hand was holding her bouquet of blue roses and white calla lilies. Andy was just standing close to his sister, but bent over the back of Mamie standing in front of him. A Mamie who’d been caught by the camera, laughing uncontrollably, Andy’s arms wrapped around her in what looked like an embrace, but what memory served as him tickling her.

  Shaw stood next to Andy with his hand on Andy’s shoulder, he was bent slightly with his own laughter toward his sister and a man he treated as a brother.

  Greta, however, was looking at the camera with a look on her beautiful face Hix had seen only three times from her in his life.

  The first was the first time he saw her brother wrap his arms around her that day her mother was making a scene at Sunnydown.

  The second was when he looked back to her face after he’d slid her wedding ring on her finger during their wedding.

  And that picture was the last.

  Her expression was sublime.

  As it would be.

  She looked like she’d just hit heaven.

  “Ready,” she said from behind him and he turned to see her coming in the room in a gorgeous, tight dress, her usual heels on her feet.

  He suspected with one look at her that he looked like she did in their wedding photo.

  Then again, Hix suspected most times he looked at his wife, he looked like that.

  She was rummaging through her bag, doing it talking.

  “We gotta go. With everyone coming in to see her, hair ran long and I didn’t get back in enough time. We’re running late.”

  He knew this, she didn’t have to tell him.

  He didn’t share that info.

  He walked her out the door, managed to keep Rocky from following them to the garage as he got her in his Bronco and they took off.

  “I talked with her and Mamie’s driving Andy back to Sunnydown after he’s done at work. So we don’t have to lea
ve early.”

  “Right,” Hix muttered.

  Andy had started about a month after Shaw left for the marines at J&K’s Electrics. He did cleanup and stock work.

  That was, he did that until he’d been caught talking to some customers about a TV and he’d surprised the owners with his knowledge and enthusiasm. It surprised the owners further when the customers took Andy’s recommendations and bought the expensive TV Andy recommended.

  That had earned him a polo shirt with the store name stitched on it and a salesperson’s position. He had heavy supervision. But he even surprised Greta with the fact that he was a savant at all things with a plug.

  The owners used what made Andy special to their advantage.

  Andy didn’t mind so Greta didn’t mind, which meant Hix didn’t mind.

  He’d had three seizures there and got flustered once, enough to bump into a display of thumb drives, knocking it over and making a mess, which flustered him even more.

  They’d just called Hix, he’d come, calmed him down, took him home and they said no more. They just called “hey” when Hix walked him in the next day.

  He didn’t remember a quarter of the sales he made but he didn’t have to remember what he’d done to sell more.

  It worked and it might not have changed Andy, but it made him happy.

  Hix drove them to the church, helped his wife out of the Bronco and got her ass to a pew.

  It was when he was sitting next to her, staring at the front when he felt her fingers curl around his.

  “Hey,” she called.

  He turned to her.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” he lied.

  Her smile was soft and her head tipped to the side.

  “Don’t lie to me, smokey,” she said quietly.

  “Not sure I should be here,” he told her.

  “She asked you as well as me.”

  “I’m a remin—”

  Greta squeezed his hand, got close and whispered, “She asked you. It means something you’re here. And you’re you. You know that. So you’re here.”

  He swallowed.

  He then nodded.

  She gave him another soft smile, turned to face forward but did it dropping her head to rest it on his shoulder.

  Only then did Hix relax.

  He watched the groom come in with his groomsmen.