The Wedding Pearls

by Carolyn Brown

  “Remember when we got caught in the school bathroom smoking cigarettes?” Ivy giggled again.

  “Shhh! Don’t you let Melody hear that or she’ll never let us forget it,” Frankie said.

  “She’s already inside with them damn things stuck in her ears. I’m probably lucky that I can’t hear the shit she listens to.” Ivy looked over at Tessa. “Back then cigarettes didn’t cause lung cancer or emphysema or any of those other diseases. Hell, they didn’t have a notice on the packages until we’d done smoked for forty years. They had a bull pen out back of the school for kids who wanted to smoke.”

  “Really? Are you pulling my leg like you did Melody’s with the ghost stories?” Tessa asked.

  Ivy used her free hand to cross her chest. “It’s the god-honest truth, ain’t it, Frankie?”

  “It is. Only good girls didn’t go to the bull pen. No, sir! Our mamas might be sittin’ home smokin’ up a storm, but their daughters best not be seen out there in that bull pen with them wild boys,” Frankie said.

  Tessa cocked her head to one side. “What happened?”

  “Tilting your head to one side like that is something else that you got from Lola. She always does that when she’s worried or when she asks a question,” Frankie said as she kept walking. “But to get back to the story, Ivy can cry on demand, and she brought on the tears. Our principal let us off with a warning, and believe me, we never got caught again.”

  Ivy pursed her lips together. “That’s right. From then on we opened the window and brought along Delores to stand watch for us. Look at those two old geezers over there in that window looking at Mollybedamned.”

  “Old farts wouldn’t know what to do with that much power if they did get to drive her,” Frankie said.

  Tessa bit back the giggles. If the whole trip was like this, she wouldn’t have wasted a single minute of it. Those two should take Blister and Mollybedamned to New York City and do comedy shows.

  Ivy nudged Frankie with her elbow as they got in line to order. “Bet neither one of them would know what to do with two good-lookin’ broads like us, either.”

  “Ivy!” Tessa gasped.

  “Hey, I can take the oxygen off for ten minutes at a time. Fifteen with a little jacked-up Dr Pepper. That’s twice as long as it would take an old fart like that to get the job done,” Ivy said.

  “What job?” Melody asked as she stepped into line with them. “I thought y’all had to, like, go to the bathroom.”

  Frankie winked at Ivy. “We do, but we’re going to order and then go. Takes us longer to get up and down than it does you younguns.”

  “Don’t mind them.” Lola poked Tessa on the upper arm. “They go on like that all the time. Been best friends since before they went to school, and there’s never a dull moment around them.”

  “I want to be like them when I grow up,” Tessa said.

  “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it,” Branch said so close to her neck that she could feel the warmth of his breath.

  Tingles danced up and down her spine. She could blame it on not having had a boyfriend in nine months, but that wouldn’t be true. But that did not mean anything would ever happen between them. A month might be long enough to form a friendship, but a relationship took much longer. Still, it was nice to know that she still had a hormone left in her body. She’d begun to think they’d all dried up and died after the stunt her last boyfriend pulled.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A blast of cool air greeted Tessa as the hotel’s automatic doors opened for them when they stopped for the day. Lord, it felt good to stand a few feet away from the desk under a vent while Branch did all the paperwork to check them into the hotel. A few feet in front of Tessa was a lovely staircase leading up to the second-floor rooms. The dining room where breakfast would be served the next morning was to her right and to the left was a nice comfortable sitting room with couches, wingback chairs, and tables. On past that the hallway where the first-floor rooms were located ran west to east. She didn’t care if her room was on the top floor or in the basement as long as it had air-conditioning and a shower.

  She hadn’t had time to cool off when Branch brought three room keys tucked away in little envelopes to Frankie. From the numbers, Tessa figured they’d be lined up side by side and wondered if she’d be sharing with Frankie and Lola. That would give Branch his own room and put Ivy and Melody together. But she was wrong.

  Frankie looked at the keys and tucked one inside the pocket of her shirt. “This one is for me and Ivy and Melody.”

  “But I wanted to, like, stay in the room with Tessa and Lola,” Melody fussed.

  Ivy’s eyebrows show up. “Too bad, darlin’. You are here to wait on me, not have a party.”

  Frankie handed the second envelope to Lola. “You and Tessa will be right next to us, and Branch, this one is for you. And so we don’t have this argument every night, this will be our sleeping arrangement for the rest of the trip. Now, Branch, would you see to it our bags are put in the right rooms, and then you can log out for the day.” Frankie looked like she could fall on her face and take a nap right there at the foot of the staircase.

  “Yes, ma’am. Your chauffeur will do that for you,” he said tersely.

  Frankie shook her finger at him. “Don’t you get pissy with me, young man. You get to stop work in the middle of the afternoon, which is more than you’d do if you were at home.”

  “And besides, since you can’t resist being a gentleman, you’d do it anyway,” Lola told him.

  He folded his hands across his chest and flashed a brilliant smile. “Y’all are ganging up on me.”

  “Yes, we are,” Ivy said. “But you’re a big, strappin’ cowboy. You can take it. Now, rather than stand here and argue, I’m going to my room and taking a shower. I swear to God, I’ve been sweatin’ like a barnyard turkey the week before Thanksgiving, but it was worth every drop to get to do this today.”

  Branch grabbed a luggage cart from the hotel foyer and pushed it out to the parking lot where he’d already put the Cadillac’s top up, locked the doors, and put Mollybedamned to bed for a nap until supper time.

  Frankie led the way down the hall, checking room numbers until she found the right one. “Okay, y’all. We will meet up in the lobby at six fifteen this evening. Tonight we’re going to a little Italian restaurant that Lola found online. They have tiramisu and cheesecake on the dessert menu, and I love cheesecake. Reservations have been made for six thirty.” She opened the door and pushed it open, letting Ivy and Melody go on ahead of her. “That’ll give us time to get cleaned up and rested, maybe even take a little nap.”

  “Next one is ours.” Lola took a few steps and slipped the key card into the door. “You can listen for Branch.” She peeled off her shirt and threw it on the floor next to the closet door. “I’m hot, sweaty, and already tired of riding in a convertible, but don’t tell Mama. She and Ivy are twenty again when they get in that car with the top down. I hope it at least rains a few days so we can ride in air-conditioned comfort.” Her khaki shorts landed somewhere by the desk in the corner.

  Tessa sank down on the sofa. “Mollybedamned has air-conditioning?”

  “Not in the beginning, but when I was about sixteen Daddy had it put in over at the Cadillac place in Beaumont. Mama liked the top down but he hated to be hot and miserable, so they compromised.” Lola kicked off her flip-flops. One went toward the window, the other scooted up under the bed. “Top stayed down until noon and then it went up for the afternoon.”

  Next was the bra and then the cute little hot-pink bikini panties as Lola made her way to the bathroom. The door shut, and Tessa heard the sound of shower.

  One thing was for absolutely sure, Tessa had not inherited Lola’s lack of modesty. That she had to have gotten from Sophie, along with her penchant to have things in order at all times. She fought the urge to pick up all the clothes, fold them neatly, and stack them on the end of the desk, but she sure didn’t want to get off on the wrong
foot this first night with Lola.

  Branch rapped on the door and yelled, “Bellboy with your luggage.”

  Tessa bounded off the sofa and slung the door open. He unloaded two suitcases, a fancy pink leather laptop case, and a cooler right inside the door and was on the way out when he stopped and looked Tessa right in the eye.

  “Don’t ask questions and don’t move. Not an inch. Just keep your eyes on the floor,” he said.

  “What?” she asked. “Is this a joke or a prank?”

  “There is a spider above your head, and if you start flailing around it’s going to land in your hair,” he answered.

  She froze and became a statue with her eyes closed tightly. “Get it and flush it down the toilet.”

  “I don’t think Lola would appreciate me going into the bathroom right now. I’ve got his remains wrapped up in a tissue. I’ll take him to my trash can,” Branch said.

  Tessa waited until the door was closed behind him, and then she crawled up in the middle of the bed and sat cross-legged as she checked the entire ceiling and the corners for any more of the vicious varmints.

  Lola came out of the shower with a towel around her slender body and one wrapped turban style around her head. “What is the matter with you? You look like you saw one of those ghosts that Mama and Ivy teased Melody about.”

  “Spider,” Tessa gasped.

  In one leap, Lola stood in the middle of the bed. The towel that had been around her head hit the pillows and the one around her body slipped down below her breasts. She pulled it back up and tucked the corner firmly under her arm. “Where? Kill the sumbitch. I hate spiders. That’s why I wouldn’t go to the bathroom in that god-awful place we stopped this morning.”

  “Me, too!” Tessa told her about the fuzzy creature only slightly smaller than an Angus bull hanging above her head on a tiny thread. “I don’t see another one, though, so I guess he was traveling alone.”

  Lola checked the floor cautiously and stepped off the bed. “Well, thank God for Branch. If I was ten years younger, I’d go over to his room and thank him properly.”

  Tessa eased off the bed. “Lola!”

  “Well, I would. Your turn in the bathroom. I’m going to fire up my laptop and check on Inez, the lady who helps me run the store. After supper tonight I plan on a quick swim in the hotel pool. My body feels like it’s been riding all day, and it needs a good loosening up. Too bad that’s the only way I can get the job done.” She smiled.

  Tessa opened her suitcase and removed her laptop and set it on the sofa. “What’s that supposed to mean, and how did you get away with bringing a cooler and a laptop case? I was told one piece of luggage.”

  “I had to have the cooler. I’m a bear if I don’t have a Diet Coke first thing in the morning, and Mama knows it. The laptop case I snuck into the car after Mama and Ivy had their baggage in there. My suitcase was too full to fit it inside.” She smiled.

  Tessa nodded and headed toward the bathroom, but she did not leave her clothing lying all over the hotel room floor. Letting the hot, pulsating water massage her back, she propped her arms on the tile and buried her face. What in the hell was she doing in a hotel room with a tattooed stranger and a big, hairy black spider? This was not Tessa Wilson at all. She was not impulsive. She didn’t do anything without planning it to the last detail. That was her job—planning trips for folks with every possible point covered and taken care of before they ever boarded the airplane, bus, or train. She damn sure didn’t run off for a month with strangers without an itinerary and a plan. What in the devil had come over her?

  No answers shot out of the shower, so she lathered up her hair and then used conditioner. When she finished, she wrapped a towel around her body and one around her head, exactly like Lola had done.

  When she stepped out of the bathroom, Branch and Lola were deep in conversation, and she pulled the towel tighter around her body. Why did a towel that covered up a hell of a lot more than a bikini make a woman feel so naked?

  “Branch, did you see how tired Mama was?” Lola said. “I’m glad we’re staying two nights here, and we may have to do more of that if she starts to wear out more and more. She thinks she’s twenty, but we all know the truth about that.”

  Sparks danced around the room between her and Branch so that Tessa was surprised Lola didn’t see or hear the crackling noise they made.

  “We’ll watch her closely,” Branch said. “I should be going now. I’ve got some business of my own to take care of. Thank God this place has free Wi-Fi. See y’all in a little while.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me he was here? And why did he come back?” Tessa fumed when he left.

  “You’re covered up. It’s not a big deal. He called to see if I’d brought an extra memory stick for the computer and then came to get it,” Lola explained.

  Both of Tessa’s eyebrows shot up. “Easy for you to say. You’re dressed.”

  Lola’s laughter filled the room. “Our first fight, and it didn’t take a week to get here.”

  Tessa dug in her suitcase for fresh underwear and a nightshirt that would do until it was time to dress for dinner. “I’m not fighting. I’m stating facts. You are dressed.”

  “Sure I am. I’m wearing a ratty old nightshirt and boxer shorts and no bra. My hair is hanging limp and my toenail polish is chipped, while you stand there looking like a fresh little flower with dew hanging on the petals.”

  “I’m mad at you right now, and it doesn’t have anything to do with Branch,” Tessa said bluntly.

  Lola settled into the desk chair and stared right into Tessa’s eyes. “For giving you away at birth?”

  “Hell, no!” The words spewed from Tessa’s mouth.

  “Then what did I do?”

  “Being adopted has never bothered me at all. It’s this damned clumsiness that I could strangle you for.” Each word got louder.

  “Well, darlin’, that is a Laveau thing, and I could have strangled my daddy for the same thing. I couldn’t even be a cheerleader in high school.”

  “I’m still mad,” Tessa said honestly.

  “You can get glad in the same britches, or lack of britches, as the case is right now. I see you got the smart-ass attitude that we get in exchange for the awkwardness.”

  “Yes, I did, and I’m sure it will surface plenty during the next few weeks. Sometimes it embarrasses the hell out of me.”

  “Welcome to my world,” Lola said and went back to work on her computer.

  Lola was working on her computer when Tessa finished dressing for the evening. She’d chosen a bright floral sundress with lots of cornflower blue in it and sandals to match and hoped she hadn’t overdressed.

  Lola pushed her reading glasses down on her nose. “You look real pretty, Tessa.”

  “Thank you and so do you.” Tessa nodded.

  Lola looked like a gypsy child in a flowing multicolored gauze skirt, an orange tank top that hugged her slim body, and bright-blue flip-flops. She’d curled her blonde hair, but the curls were already falling.

  “Thanks. Mama likes me to get dressed up occasionally.” Lola’s smile was almost shy.

  Tessa tucked her room key into a tiny purse that held her cell phone, credit cards, and cash. “I’m going to go hang out in the lobby and wait for everyone.”

  “Mama will probably be there. She’s always early and I’m usually late to everything. Guess you got that early thing from her, not me,” Lola said. “I’ve got half an hour, so I’m going to Skype with a friend of mine in Boomtown.”

  Tessa waved as she shut the door. “See you later then.”

  She spotted Frankie when she turned the corner. She still looked tired, but her eyes brightened when she looked up and saw Tessa. She motioned her over to the empty chair beside her.

  “You sure do look like Lola this evening,” Frankie said. “Have a seat and let’s talk. We haven’t had much time for you and me by ourselves.”

  “Thank you, and you look all spiffy yourself.” Tessa had
never seen so much glitter and glam on a knit shirt or had any idea that a grandmother would wear big diamonds on every finger and in her ears. “Maybe we’d better get Branch a pistol to protect all that jewelry.”

  Frankie patted her big black purse setting on the table beside her. “Branch don’t need a gun, honey. I carry a .38 Saturday night special right here in the pocket of my purse and I’m not afraid to use it.”

  “Good grief, Frankie. What scares you enough that you need to carry a gun?” Tessa stammered.

  Frankie giggled. It wasn’t a chuckle or laughter, but a little girl giggle that didn’t go with the idea of a six-gun right there in her purse. “Not a damn thing, but if it tries, it’s going to be wigglin’ on the ground tryin’ to breathe. Now have a seat, darlin’, and I’ll tell you a story.”

  Tessa chose the empty chair right beside Frankie and turned in the seat so she was facing her. “I love stories.”

  “Good, because today I’m going to tell you about your grandfather, and each day on this trip, I will tell you a story of some kind about this part of your family.”

  “I’d like that,” Tessa said.

  Frankie sat up straighter and smiled. “Lester Laveau was a romantic soul, and I fell in love with him when we were freshmen in high school. My mama wouldn’t let me date until I was sixteen, but Lester was allowed to call on me on Sunday afternoons.”

  Tessa made a mental note to remember all that she could of the stories and type them into her laptop each evening. She’d have the stories to tell her own children someday when they asked about her ancestors.

  “Then I had a birthday, and we were allowed to sit in church together and go to church socials, but always with a chaperone.” Frankie’s eyes twinkled and her mouth turned up in a smile so big that it totally erased all the wrinkles around it. “Sometimes Ivy and I would go for a walk and Ivy would wait under this big old scrub oak tree while me and Lester had some time alone up in the hay loft. It was there that I got my first kiss, and I liked it so much I went back for lots more.”