The Wedding Pearls

by Carolyn Brown

  She rolled up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, closing the space between them. She met him in a steamy kiss that made her knees go weak and her whole body ache for more.

  He polished off the best kiss in the universe with a buss on the tip of her nose and a husky, “Good night, Tessa. See you at ten if I don’t catch you at breakfast.”

  And he was gone.

  She managed to get inside her room before her knees gave out and she slid down the back of the door. Sweet Jesus in heaven! What had she set loose? She could not let this happen again. She had to ride right next to him for the next three weeks. She had to sit beside him at dinner and share supper in the close quarters of Frankie’s room with him every night.

  How in the hell was she going to do that? Not one time in all her almost thirty years had a man affected her like Branch. And for sure no one had ever made her swoon with a kiss before.

  Tessa grabbed her journal and a pen from the nightstand and tiptoed to the bathroom. She eased the door shut before she turned on the light and sat in the floor, back to the tub as she wrote about that evening.

  Big news first. Branch kissed me and my insides turned to mush and my brain lost its ability to think. I’ve never in all my life lost control of my thoughts, my heart, or my knees like that. It has to be what they talk about in castle romances when the heroine swoons. Mama wants me to write about my feelings, but I’m not sure words can begin to describe what it feels like when he touches me. There, I wrote it down. It’s been like this from the first time he walked into the agency and my heart did a flip in my chest. No man has ever affected me like that before.

  So with that said, I’ll go on to what Lola told me in the mall about having no mother instincts. That scares the bejesus out of me. Branch kisses me and turns my hormones up to high speed, and yet if it were to ever go further than a few stolen kisses, what would happen if I inherited the lack of mothering instincts?

  Now on to the pain I felt when Ivy told me she doesn’t have long to live. I’ve gotten over the guilt of liking her and Frankie, and knowing that I don’t have much more time with Ivy makes me very sad. I’m filled with a new determination to make this trip wonderful for her since it will be her last one. Frankie will be devastated when she finds out, and I hope that I can be there to help her through the time when Ivy leaves this world.

  Tears flowed down Tessa’s cheeks as she wrote fast and furious. Landing on the page of the journal, they smeared the ink in places. She grabbed a tissue from the hole in the vanity and dabbed at them, making a bigger mess.

  “Even my tears are disastrous. I don’t need to be able to read all the words though. I will never forget this pain.” She blew on the paper to dry it before she shut the journal for the evening.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Ivy and Frankie giggled like little girls with a secret, whispering behind their hands, their old eyes twinkling as they got situated in the backseat of the Caddy the next morning.

  Lola fastened her seat belt and glanced over her shoulder. “You two seem bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. You want to share some of that happy?”

  “Happy, happy, happy,” Ivy said and then burst out laughing.

  “Hush, you old fart. You’ll be coughing so hard that Blister won’t be able to pump enough oxygen in your worthless lungs,” Frankie said.

  “They must’ve watched reruns of Duck Dynasty while we were gone,” Branch said.

  “Watched what?” Melody asked.

  Ivy nodded and then readjusted her nose tubes. “Frankie brought all the seasons of it in her suitcase and we got the hotel clerk to bring us a DVD player and this morning we are happy, happy, happy. Next time we get into a Walmart store, I’m going to buy me one of those shirts with that on the front. I may buy an extra one so I can be buried in it.”

  “What is Duck Dynasty?” Melody asked with a shiver. “And don’t talk about death like that, Aunt Ivy. Besides, Mama would never let you be buried in a T-shirt.”

  “Modern-day Waltons,” Lola answered.

  “What is Waltons?” Melody asked.

  “A show about family life on a farm back in the nineteen thirties and forties. It ran on television for several years back when Lola was a little girl,” Ivy answered. “It’s before your time, and Duck Dynasty is out of your league.”

  “You all thought that Steel Magnolias was, too, and now Shelby is, like, my role model, so I want to see Duck Dynasty for myself. Can I, like, watch it with you tonight in the hotel room?” Melody asked.

  “Of course you can, honey. You might have a new role model and want to start cookin’ like Miz Kay,” Ivy said.

  “Or grow a beard like Phil.” Frankie broke out in another round of giggles.

  “Or start wearing camo and ask for a rifle for Christmas,” Lola chimed in.

  “Hey, I’m barely getting into my new skin. Don’t be trying to, like, talk me out of my blush and bashful pink this quick. But camo does sound interesting. It might show Natalie that I’m, like, out for war.” Melody picked up her phone and her thumbs flew over the tiny keys.

  “They do make pink camo,” Tessa said. “I bet you’d look real cute in pink camo yoga pants and a tight little knit top with maybe a headband around your forehead.”

  “Really! This I’ve got to, like, see. I want the whole getup before we get home. I’ve got to tell Jill about it. We’ll, like, check it out on the Net tonight.” Melody’s thumbs went back to work.

  Tessa had wondered if there would be awkward moments that morning, but Branch was in every bit as good a mood as the two happy ladies in the backseat. They kept coming off with lines from the shows they’d watched and then remembering times in their lives when similar things had happened, and he laughed at their stories.

  “We are going to Pampa this morning,” Ivy piped up an hour into the trip. “My doctor has called in a refill for Blister’s mama at the hospital there.”

  “Is that the tank thing that you plug Blister up to, like, when you are taking a shower at night?” Melody asked.

  “It is. Blister has to suck on her tit until he’s full and ready for the next day and now she’s gone bone-dry and it’s time to refill his mama. I call my doctor when it’s time for a refill and he gets hold of the nearest hospital or medical center and they refill it for me.”

  “Does Blister’s mama have a name, too?” Tessa asked.

  Ivy patted the oxygen tank at her feet. “No, bless his heart, his mama don’t have a name,” Ivy answered. “Frankie, I wonder if they’d put some of that nitrous stuff in a little side tank. We could get really happy, happy, happy if we could breathe in a little of that along the journey.”

  “Wouldn’t hurt to ask,” Frankie said. “All they can say is no.”

  Lola picked up her knitting and started to hum. “They’re wound up this morning,” she whispered.

  “Want to go to another movie tonight?” Branch asked Tessa. “Or how about beer, popcorn, and a movie in my room?”

  “Let’s plan on it in my room,” she said. “After all, you paid for last night. It’s my turn.”

  He nudged her shoulder. “Afraid to be alone with me?”

  She pushed back. “After that kiss? Yes, I am.”

  “Oh, that little old thing. That was to cure your clumsiness, although I did think it was right cute. Mythology has it that if a handsome cowboy gives an awkward girl a kiss and he’s the right cowboy for her, then she is cured forever,” he said.

  “I’ve studied mythology and I never heard that,” she argued.

  He touched her knee with his. “Did you study ancient redneck cowboy mythology?”

  She crossed one leg over the other to get away from the heat of his bare skin touching hers. “No, that wasn’t offered where I went to college.”

  “Too bad. You would have known about it sooner and kissed another cowboy before me. Of course it wouldn’t have worked, because he wouldn’t have been the right cowboy.”

  “Kind of like Sl
eeping Beauty, only this is Clumsy Lady?”

  “No more, now it is Lovely Lady. I’m telling you, the kiss cured you,” he said.

  “Just one, or does it wear off?” she asked.

  “Mythology says it’s good for twenty-four hours at the very least. In a pinch it can last forty-eight hours, but the last ten of that would be kind of iffy,” he teased.

  “I figured there was a catch,” she said, sighing.

  He shifted his position so that his hip was right against hers. “It’s not that bad. I don’t mind helping you.”

  “Now, those are some pretty good pickup lines.” She laughed.

  “What are y’all talking about? I thought I heard something about cowboy mythology,” Frankie piped up from the backseat.

  Branch looked up in the rearview mirror and asked, “Did you ever hear of it?”

  “Of course. My daddy knew all of the sayin’s from that. Like ‘Never squat with your spurs on.’ Remember them, Ivy?”

  Ivy raised her voice over the ever-blowing wind in that part of the state. “Oh, yeah, and ‘Never drink downstream from the cattle herd.’”

  “Did he hear that a kiss from the right cowboy would cure clumsiness?” Tessa asked.

  Lola put away her knitting and stopped humming. “If I’d known that, I would have chapped my lips trying to find the right cowboy.”

  “Never heard of it, but that’s not to say it ain’t true,” Frankie said. “Do we need to be hitting some rodeos on the way? Maybe you and Tessa could put up a kissin’ booth.”

  “I’d sure be tempted,” Lola said.

  Tessa changed the subject before they started asking questions about how many cowboys she’d kissed. “Any of y’all want to move to this part of the state where there ain’t nothing but dirt and sky? Not many trees and no hills, and I bet you could see a tornado coming for a hundred miles.”

  “Hell, no! I like the green grass in my part of the world just fine,” Ivy answered.

  “Not me. I want to go home, go back to school and, like, talk to Jill every day,” Melody said.

  “What about you, Tessa? You happy in New Iberia?” Branch asked.

  “Never known any other place except when I went to college. It’s home, but being a travel agent, I’ve often wondered about living, not visiting, other places. Clint has a rule that seems to be true. If you go somewhere and can’t wait to get back home, then it wasn’t meant for you to live in that place. If you go and hate to go home, then maybe you’d better study your situation a little bit.”

  “Where all have you been?” Melody asked.

  “England twice and Scotland a couple of times, but I was always ready to come home, so I don’t think I’d want to live there. Where would you like to go, Melody?”

  She laid her phone in her lap and unplugged her ears from the music. “I want to see Italy someday. Maybe that’s where I’ll go on my honeymoon when I get married, but that’s not going to be, like, until I’m old, like maybe thirty.”

  That set Ivy and Frankie off on a discussion about how in their day thirty was considered to be an old maid. Lola picked up her knitting again. Branch turned on the radio to a classic country station.

  Tessa leaned toward him. “Maybe old cowboy kisses don’t work on curing clumsiness after all. It could have to be a young, sexy cowboy who gets carded at the drive-in movie concession stand.”

  “Old cowboys are like vintage wine. Their kisses are more potent. That’s why they can last forty-eight hours in a pinch. Those young ones don’t have the finesse or the sense to know how to kiss a lovely lady right.”

  She sat up straight. “When I drop food in my lap at noon or spill sweet tea on you, we’ll see if you change your tune.”

  Pampa, Texas, was big enough that they had a choice of several places for lunch, but Ivy and Frankie declared they wanted to eat at the Texas Rose Steakhouse. They dropped off Blister’s mama for an oxygen refill and then headed straight for the restaurant.

  “We could have gotten closer to the border since this whole road trip is about circling the great state of Texas.” Branch looked over the menu.

  “We’re still in the zone,” Ivy told him. “I’m having the biggest sirloin in the house, and those potatoes right there.” She pointed at the picture on the menu. “And macaroni and cheese.”

  “Eating light today, are you?” Lola teased.

  “I’m going to spend the rest of my natural life eating exactly what I want,” Ivy said. “And smoking a cigarette after I have dessert.”

  “Well, go get ’em, Aunt Ivy.” Melody laughed. “I’m having the same thing.”

  “I’m having ribs,” Branch said and then moved his knee over to bump Tessa’s under the table. “You might as well test out my theory about my kiss curing clumsiness tonight,” he said so softly that only Tessa could hear him.

  “I’m testing it right now, but are you sure you want to sit this close? Ribs might slip out of my hands and land right on your pretty white shirt,” she said.

  “I’m confident that I have the cure,” he answered softly.

  “Aunt Ivy”—Melody’s eyes twinkled—“Tessa and Branch are whispering and I can’t hear what they’re, like, sayin’ and that’s not polite, is it?”

  “It is not. You two save your pillow talk for when you are alone,” Ivy teased.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Branch said seriously.

  Tessa blushed scarlet.

  “And I’m changing the subject before I forget because sometimes us old people do that,” Frankie said. “After we run by the hospital, we’re going to go to the Walmart store and get the stuff we need for supper. I’m thinking fried chicken and potato salad. We need some more plates and plastic forks, too. So Lola, make a list.”

  Their waitress came and took their drink orders, then brought the drinks right out and asked if they’d like appetizers. “We’ve got some awesome fried mozzarella cheese sticks and fried zucchini.”

  “Two orders of each,” Frankie said. “And we are all ready to order now.”

  Tessa wasn’t a believer, not yet, but she did finish eating messy ribs, beans, and coleslaw without dropping a single bean or dribbling on her shirt. If he kissed her a few more times and she wasn’t clumsy anymore, she might patent his kisses and make a million dollars selling them to awkward women. Just thinking of other women kissing him shot a green blast of jealousy through her that she’d never felt before, not with Matt or any other man she’d ever dated.

  An hour later they were on their way out of the restaurant and Lola looped her arm through Frankie’s. “So fried chicken, plates and forks, and potato salad, right, Mama? Remember we’re limited in the trunk, so be careful in the Walmart store.”

  “Yes, Mama Lola!” Ivy and Frankie singsonged together.

  “I’m not your mama, so stop that,” Lola fussed at them.

  “But,” Ivy declared as she crawled into the backseat and situated Blister, “I do want a box of those maple iced doughnuts, and I’ll carry them in my lap if I have to.”

  “How can you think of food?” Melody groaned. “I may not eat a bite until, like, tomorrow night.”

  “Tell me that when we’re watching Duck Dynasty tonight and you start bitchin’ about nothing to eat in the hotel room,” Frankie said.

  Branch pulled the Caddy up to the Walmart store, which was only a couple of blocks from the restaurant, and all five ladies unloaded.

  “I’ll stay right here and wait, and yes, Miz Frankie, I will clock out.” He grinned.

  “Good, because I was about to tell you to get out the logbook,” she said.

  When they were inside, Tessa put Blister in a shopping cart’s infant seat for Ivy. “You can push,” she said. “I’m definitely going to start taking advantage of the fitness room in the hotel, starting tonight. Thirty minutes on the treadmill or on the stationary bike.”

  “You know what a shopping cart is? It’s an old woman’s walker but it lets her keep her dignity.” Ivy moved to one side. “Here,
Frankie, you can push with me.”

  Frankie put her hands on the handle. “I don’t have to have a damned old tube up my nose.”

  Ivy slung her hip against Frankie’s. “Not yet.”

  “Okay, children, stop fighting or else I’ll make you both sit in the car next time,” Lola said.

  Ivy stuck out her tongue at Frankie, who retaliated by sticking her thumbs in her ears and wiggling her fingers.

  Lola ignored their antics. “And don’t go overboard on food.”

  “We need some decent paper napkins,” Frankie said. “Last night we had to use tissues from the bathroom and they fall apart in greasy hands.”

  “How are we going to keep the chicken and potato salad from going bad?” Tessa asked.

  “Mama’s cooler is empty but there’s enough ice in the bottom to keep everything chilled, and besides, we’re not but about an hour and a half from the hotel,” Lola explained.

  Ivy picked up a bag of miniature chocolate doughnuts and a box of real doughnuts with maple icing. “We’re working out a good system here. We eat in the hotel in the morning and get left by ten, drive a couple of hours and have our noon meal, then we get to our next hotel about three in the afternoon and order out or take our supper in with us. I could live like this forever, Frankie.”

  Frankie tossed in a bag of chocolate chip cookies. “Me, too, Ivy. I’m glad we’re doin’ this. We should’ve done it years ago and then we would have had the energy to circle the whole United States, not just Texas.”

  “Ain’t it the truth.” Ivy sighed.

  Lola squealed and pointed at a sign stuck to a fence post. “Look, it’s another garage sale. And it’s only two o’clock and we’re only ten miles from Perryton, so we’ve got time because we can’t check in until three.”

  Tessa had been dozing and almost shot straight up out of the car.