The Wedding Pearls

by Carolyn Brown

  Tessa pasted on her best fake smile. “I’m fine, Wanette, thank you. Just had a long day.”

  “That Clint better get his sorry ass home like he said he would this week. I miss him comin’ in for lunch, but you need him at the agency. What was he thinkin’, runnin’ off for a whole month like that?” Wanette fussed as she hurried off to take care of another customer.

  “Any more questions?” Sophie asked.

  Tessa needed another sip before she could make the words leave her mouth, so she picked up the glass and took two long gulps. “Why did you adopt me?”

  Sophie hesitated so long that Tessa wondered if she’d even said the words. “Lola had a real hard pregnancy, and when it came time to deliver you, our midwife couldn’t do the job. We called an ambulance and I went with her, mainly because she wouldn’t let go of my hand and I thought for sure she’d die. No one deserves to die alone. You couldn’t get through the birth canal so they had to do an emergency cesarean, which meant she had to stay in the hospital a few days.”

  Tessa ate more of the hot roll, not tasting a single bit of it. “You didn’t really answer my question.”

  Sophie grimaced. “This is tough. I don’t want you to judge her before you meet her. She was a sweet girl, Tessa, but the pain was horrible and she must have equated that with you, and then there was the fact that her boyfriend had left her and she’d turned away from all her upbringing and gone wild for a while. It all caused a great deal of guilt.” She stopped and drained her margarita. “I was the one that bonded with you as if I’d given birth to you myself. Your dad and I knew from the time we got together that I couldn’t have children, but there you needed a mother and there I needed a baby. Then Lola got an infection and they had to do a hysterectomy, and that was the only thing that made Lola happy. She never wanted another child if it meant going through nine months of hell. I asked if I could have you and she said yes. I was real glad you turned out to have blonde hair like mine and blue eyes like your daddy’s. It made things easier when we came back home, and unless someone asked, we let everyone think we had you while we were gone.”

  The alcohol had begun to ease Tessa’s nerves somewhat. The gumbo actually tasted good when she dipped into it. “What about the adoption papers?”

  “She took care of that. Said she had some money that would pay the lawyer, and six months after we came back to Louisiana he called to say that the papers were in order.” Sophie followed Tessa’s lead and dipped into the gumbo. “We drove over from New Iberia to Beaumont, Texas, and signed them. Didn’t see her and she didn’t see you. I was glad because I was terrified that she’d take you from me. And then you know how it is with our nosy family. Someone found out that we’d been to Louisiana and the word got out that we’d adopted you.”

  “I don’t want to see her,” Tessa said bluntly. “She didn’t want me then and it’s too late.”

  “I think you should,” Sophie said softly.

  “But, Mama, she didn’t want me then. In all these years, she’s never made a move to get in touch with me or you . . .” Anger replaced all the other emotions. Tessa’s ears burned as if steam were really flying out of them. Her hand shot up to cover her mouth and her eyes widened. “Has she talked to you about this?”

  Sophie leaned across the table and put her fingers on Tessa’s lips. “No, chère, we haven’t talked since the day she left the hospital after you were born. And Tessa, I will always be your mother, but you should at least get to know Lola and her mother. They are family by blood. And, honey, she was every bit as clumsy as you are.”

  The anger disappeared at her mother’s touch, and Tessa smiled. “Really?” she asked incredulously.

  “Really.” Sophie nodded.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Tessa argued with herself as she crossed half the state of Louisiana. Several times she considered turning around and going right back to New Iberia and never looking in the rearview mirror. But her parents thought it would be a good thing if she met her biological family, and she was curious. Besides, she’d given her word, and her father said in a Cajun family that was as good as a binding contract.

  The call to Branch the night before had been very businesslike. She’d told him she would drive to Boomtown on Sunday and be there at noon but that she probably would not go on the trip. He’d thanked her for the call and said he would let Frankie and Lola know what she’d decided, and they’d said good-bye and that was that.

  She drove into the little town of Boomtown and nosed into the school parking lot where Branch told her he would meet her before leading her out to the Laveau place. Being early to appointments was as much a part of her as that obsessive thing she had about keeping everything in order. Even a hairpin on the vanity worried the devil out of her until it was put away.

  She checked her reflection in the mirror. Lipstick was all chewed off, so she reapplied that. The rest of her makeup still looked good, but the curls she’d worked so hard to put in her shoulder-length hair that morning had drooped. Her mama could fix her hair in the morning and work out with kids all day long and it would still look good that night. Tessa’s curls fell out within a couple of hours, and perms did nothing but turn her hair to straw. Maybe, like her clumsiness, it was a genetic thing and she could blame that on Lola, too.

  A horn blasted right beside her dark-gray Chevrolet and she jumped, dropped the still-open lipstick in her hand, and groaned when it smeared down across the light-gray fabric on the passenger’s seat. She grabbed it up, twisted it shut, and put the lid back on it, then reached in the backseat for a baby wipe. She never, ever left the house without them and bought them in bulk when she went to the discount store.

  When she finished getting the mocha-colored lipstick wiped from the seat, she turned around to find nothing but the window separating her face from Branch Thomas’s. She quickly hit the button and rolled down the window. Hot, sultry air rushed in as the cool air escaped.

  “You scared me.”

  “Sorry about that. I figured you could fall in behind me. I didn’t want to get out of my truck in this heat,” he said.

  Today his jeans were faded and he wore a dark-green knit shirt the same color as his eyes. And Lord have mercy, but he smelled good enough that she wanted to lean out the window and kiss him right smack on the lips.

  “So I’m to follow you, then,” she said.

  “If you want to go out to Frankie’s, you do. There’s more twists and turns to get to her place than you can imagine. As we go through town, look over to your left when we pass the Dairy Queen. The sign isn’t huge, but that’s Lola’s shop. She buys and sells antiques.” Without waiting for a comment, he turned around and headed back to his truck. The tight little strut he had in scuffed-up cowboy boots made her wonder how in the hell he’d ever gotten to be a lawyer. He was a cowboy through and through and looked like he’d be more at home on a tractor than in a courtroom.

  “Well, who pissed in your oatmeal this morning?” she mumbled as she turned her car around and followed the big black truck.

  Lola’s Antique Shop was in a metal building that looked like an old warehouse. The windows were clean, and what she could see of the displays going down the road at thirty-five miles an hour looked really nice.

  Branch made a couple of turns, and her hands slipped on the steering wheel as she followed. She quickly pulled a tissue from a box on the console and dried them, but it didn’t last long, not as nervous as she was. With the next turn they left the paved road and hit gravel. Dust boiled up behind his big black pickup truck thicker than a foggy Louisiana morning.

  She shouldn’t be here, and besides, who in the devil lived out here in the sticks like this? Any minute now, she expected to see a single-wide trailer with a bunch of coonhounds under the porch. Trip, her ass! They probably drove an old Volkswagen bus and the trip would involve camping out along the side of the road with a bush for a bathroom and a creek for a bath.

  They crossed a cattle guard, and less than a quarter
of a mile down a pecan tree–lined lane, Branch stopped in the middle of a circular drive in front of a lovely two-story, white-frame house.

  “Wrong about that psychedelic VW, but I’m not getting my hopes up about these people,” Tessa muttered as she stared at half a dozen white rockers on the wraparound porch. They rocked gently in the morning breeze as if someone had just left them moments before. The flower beds were every bit as meticulously cared for as her mother’s were. Roses flourished with lantana, daisies, and petunias all trimmed and blooming abundantly. A few morning glories still hung on despite the afternoon heat bearing down on them, and the impatiens were absolutely gorgeous.

  She swung the door open and called for a big dose of bravado as she stepped out of the car. She was every bit as nervous as a hooker at a church social, but she damn sure didn’t intend to let anyone know, especially that cowboy who was walking toward her.

  Legs out gracefully. Feet on the ground. Branch holding the door open for her and a hand extended to help.

  Like a lady, she put her hand in it and stood up, grateful that she didn’t get off-balance and fall against him. “Thank you.” Dammit! His touch wasn’t supposed to make her go all soft inside. A man that handsome had a woman somewhere in his life. She’d bet her agency on that much.

  “You look lovely today, Miss Tessa. Your hair is the same color as your mother’s.” He smiled.

  “So you do know how to be nice,” she said.

  “What’s that mean?” The smile faded.

  Confidence built with that first step she took without her clumsiness surfacing. “You looked like you could eat nails back there at the school.”

  “I don’t really want to be here today. I’d rather be out at my ranch, but the job comes first. Sorry if I came off rude. It’s not your fault, but it is part of the job. Our law firm handles all of Frankie’s affairs, and when she says ‘Jump,’ all my dad says is ‘How high.’” He dropped her hand.

  “We all do things we don’t want to do, I guess.” Dammit! She liked that feeling his touch gave her. She hadn’t had anything like that in almost a year. If she was honest, more than a year, and it felt good. “When you said that about my hair, did you mean my birth mother?”

  He walked beside her but kept a foot of space between them. Still, the scent of that woodsy shaving lotion had no trouble reaching her nose or sending her hormones into overdrive.

  “So your adoptive mother is a blonde also?” he asked.

  “Yes, she is.” Tessa took one step, tripped over nothing more than hot summer air, and was on her way to the gravel, facedown, when big, strong arms encircled her waist and held her tightly.

  “I’m so sorry.” She gasped as her arms flew up to circle his arms for support.

  Crimson filled her cheeks. Of all the days for her clumsiness to come out, it had to be this day when she wanted to make a good impression. His chest was hard against her breasts, his biceps like steel in her hands.

  “It’s okay. Just glad you didn’t fall on the gravel and rip that pretty blue dress. If you decide to go on this trip, you’d best bring a big hat and lots of sunblock, as fair as your skin is.” He smiled down at her.

  She pushed away from him, righted herself, and took a deep breath. “I guess there’s no putting off going inside, is there?”

  Branch’s mouth turned up at the corners. “They’re good people. A little earthy. A lot eccentric. I don’t want to say too much so you can form your own opinion, but don’t let this place or the fact that they have money scare you.”

  The door flew open, and a short, round woman wearing jeans and a flowing overshirt with more sparkling bling on it than anything Tessa had ever seen outside of Mardi Gras ran out the door. The oxygen tank she pulled rattled along behind her on the gravel like a puppy on a leash. She grabbed Tessa in a bear hug that sank Tessa’s face right into a set of big, smooshy breasts that were the size of cantaloupes.

  “Hot damn, Branch! I got the first hug. I won’t ever let Frankie hear the end of this. She’s out back havin’ one last cigarette to calm her nerves. Lola is in big trouble for keeping this big secret, I’m here to tell you. And she deserves it for not tellin’ me and Frankie about this gorgeous child all these years. Well, don’t stand out here in the heat. Come on inside before Blister blows plumb up in this heat.”

  “This is Ivy, your grandmother’s best friend.” Branch made introductions. “Ivy, this is—”

  “Hell, Branch, I know her name! It’s all we’ve talked about around here for days. We’re going to have such fun on our trip, Tessa. Me and Frankie, we been plannin’ this for years, and now that she’s retirin’, we decided to do it as a celebration. The fact that you’re going has made her day. Come on, come on. I can feel these damn tubes in my nose meltin’ as we stand here.” Ivy led the way into the house.

  “Blister?” Tessa looked up at Branch.

  “That’s the name of her oxygen tank,” he explained.

  Yep, eccentric was right, and she hadn’t met the real family yet.

  “She’s here! She’s here!” Ivy yelled like a drunken fishwife as she entered the house.

  Another blush lit up Tessa’s face. Would it be all right to hide behind Branch or to turn tail and run back to Louisiana without a backward glance? Lord, to be announced in a booming voice that could be heard all the way back to Louisiana was so embarrassing.

  A woman about Ivy’s age, only with short, gray hair cut in a chin-length pageboy that fell from a center part, came through the sliding doors at the end of a wide hallway. “You old bitch. Why’d you go out there and meet her first? I ought to jerk that tube out of your nose and watch you die right here in my foyer.” She stopped three feet away from Tessa, and her blue eyes got bigger and bigger. “Well, I’ll be damned. I can see you are sure enough her daughter. You’ve got Lola’s hair and you look a lot like she did when she left home. You sure you are almost thirty? I swear you don’t look a day over twenty.”

  She quickly crossed the short distance and wrapped Tessa up in her arms. Frankie didn’t smother her with the hug, but she did almost asphyxiate her with the lingering cigarette smoke. “You can call me Frankie, and you’ve met Ivy, the hussy. She knew I wanted to see you first.”

  “Hello, I’m Lola.” A short, blonde-haired lady stepped out from a doorway. She wore a pair of jean shorts and a halter top that showed off tats on both arms and one ankle. “Welcome to Boomtown, Tessa. I’m glad that Sophie named you that. It was my first choice of a girl’s name.”

  “Well, come on in the kitchen,” Frankie said. “Alice has the dinner ready to put on the table, and we’ll visit while we eat. I hope you like fried chicken, Tessa. I can’t tell you how happy I am to finally have a grandchild, and I got to admit, it’s kind of nice that you come already potty trained.” Frankie threw an arm around her shoulders and giggled as they followed Lola into the dining room. “You can sit right here beside me and across from Lola. Branch, you take the other end of the table. And Ivy, you can sit beside Lola. And that kid already seated is Melody. She’s Ivy’s great-niece who got into trouble for smoking pot at school and got thirty days of community service for her stupidity.”

  Tessa stiffened at the doorway and couldn’t force her feet to take another step. So many new faces, some even relatives by blood. A strange house that drew her eyes to pictures, furniture, and things that defined the owners. Smells of food wafting toward her. Too nervous to eat, yet hungry. Crazy vibes from Branch shooting across the room like a whole bevy of falling stars. Panic mode was setting in. Fight or flight, they called it. She didn’t want to fight with these people. But flight—now that sounded pretty damn good.

  Branch seated Frankie first and then Tessa before circling the table to do the same for Lola and Ivy. Melody sighed and rolled her eyes.

  Ivy laid a hand on Tessa’s arm before she rounded the end of the table, and just the touch of the old gal’s hand was calming. “Don’t mind her. She’s pissed because she has to go on this trip, do
all her schoolwork online, and send it in to her teachers. It’s a special thing because I know the judge, or else she’d be sitting her pot-smokin’ ass in detention and still doing all her homework online. It’s not a tough enough punishment, but the judge was lenient because we’re old friends.”

  A middle-aged woman started bringing out food and setting it down the length of the table. “That’s all, except for dessert. Lola, you can take care of that, right, so I can get home to my family?”

  Lola nodded. “Yes, and thanks, Alice, for working on your weekend off. We’ll make it up to you.”

  The short, round lady with salt-and-pepper hair smiled. “You already did. A month off work with pay. That’s a good job in anyone’s book. See y’all at the end of September, and if you want to come home early, call and I will get the house ready and some food cooked up. And Tessa, I’m glad you came to visit. Frankie has been so excited I was afraid she’d have a heart attack.”

  “Thank you, darlin’. Don’t know what we’d do without you, Alice,” Frankie said.

  Alice disappeared into the kitchen, and Tessa heard a door somewhere back there open and shut. It said something that they were so good to their hired help, didn’t it? And Alice said they were excited about her coming to see them, so maybe her mama had been right.

  Frankie picked up the platter of chicken, slid a breast and a wing onto her plate, and handed it to Tessa. “Now let’s talk about you, Tessa. Branch wouldn’t tell us a damn thing. Are you married? Engaged?”

  Tessa put a leg on her plate and started to pass the platter on. “Neither one. Not even dating.”

  “Better get two legs if you got any notion that you’ll want another one. This chicken had eight and Lola can eat at least six.” Frankie laughed.

  She put another one on her plate and handed the platter off to Melody, who immediately passed it on to Branch. “I’m, like, a vegetarian. That means I, like, do not eat meat,” she said.

  “Too bad marijuana ain’t meat. Then you wouldn’t be in trouble,” Ivy said.