“Yes, I will if it’s important to you.” Tessa nodded, the lump in her throat bigger now.
Frankie inhaled and let it out slowly. “That’s a big relief, because me and Ivy have done lasted longer than we figured we would without wearin’ plumb out. We want to make it at least one more week because it’ll take that long for the plans to get worked out all the way.” She paused and stared at the ceiling a few seconds before going on. “Guess I’ve put off sayin’ the words long enough. Ivy’s got less than three months to live and I’ve got less than that. It’s brain cancer and it’s one of them that got too big and badass to take out. I’m okay for today and Doc says I’ll be fine for another week or two after this, but then I’ll sleep more and more and one day I won’t wake up.” Frankie nodded slowly. “There, now it’s easier since I said it out loud. So me and Ivy have got things fixed to go to a very private care facility where they’ll know how to make us comfortable in our last days. We’re hopin’ we go together, but either way, we won’t be very long apart and then we’ll be together for all eternity.”
Like a river during flood season, the tears rushed down Tessa’s cheeks and dripped onto the collar of her sleeveless shirt. “But there’s got to be something they could do.”
Frankie pulled her over to hug her. With Tessa’s head on her shoulder, she patted her back. “Shhh. Don’t cry now, honey. I’m not in pain and probably won’t be. One day I’ll go to sleep and then I’ll wake up on the other side. There’s worse ways to go, and until then me and Ivy can talk about this trip and how much it meant to have you go with us.”
“But I wanted to get to know you better,” Tessa sobbed.
“There ain’t no better than this right here on this journey. If we had another twenty years together, it couldn’t best what we have right now.”
Tessa stiffened. “Lola? Does she know?”
Frankie shook her head. “Doesn’t know a damn thing and isn’t going to until the day we go back to Boomtown. Only me and Ivy are goin’ to our new home. Neither one of us can bear to have a day of sadness when we leave our houses, so we’ll be stopping off in Beaumont at our new place. This trip is getting us some space between all that material stuff we’re leaving behind and the new little stopover until we finish this life and go on. The new place needs another week to get things all arranged for us.”
“Oh, Frankie, this is so hard to hear.” Tessa tried to get control of the tears, but they kept flowing.
Frankie wiped her own tears away. “I never could let someone cry or smoke alone. I know this is tough, but Lola is going to need you like I needed her when Lester died. I wouldn’t have survived if she hadn’t come home and given me a reason to live. She was all broken and she needed me. For the first time in my life things were right between us. God sent you to me and gave you to her for this time in all our lives. She needs you to hold on to.”
“She’ll know something is wrong when she sees my face. I can’t hide anything,” Tessa said.
“And that’s when you’re going to tell her that Ivy is dying.” Frankie gently pushed Tessa to a sitting position and stared right into her eyes. “She don’t need to hear about us both at the same time. She needs to get it one at a time and let that process, but I cannot do it, Tessa. Please do this for me. I don’t want the last good days I spend with Lola on this trip to be sad.”
“Okay.” Tessa pulled a tissue from a box on the coffee table and blew her nose. “I will do it, but it won’t be easy.”
“Thank you.” Frankie kissed her on the forehead. “Now that’s said and done, there’s something else we need to discuss. I’ve talked to Branch’s daddy, who is my lawyer. I signed a new will before we left. My oil estate is worth millions and of course Lola will inherit a chunk of it. I left a nice little donation to mine and Ivy’s church and a scholarship fund to the school but not to a football player or a cheerleader. It has to go to a student who shows promise in geology and the sciences.”
Tessa felt Frankie’s tears on her forehead and reached for another handful of tissues.
Frankie dabbed at her eyes. “There is a sizable inheritance for you. But if you would be willing to move to Boomtown or Beaumont so you’d be closer to Lola, it will double in value. Like I said, she’s going to need you, and the way I see it, you could have a travel agency anywhere.”
“But Frankie,” she started.
Frankie laid a finger over Tessa’s lips. “I’ve put a lot on you today. I’m grateful that you are willing to use up the rest of your vacation for Lola and me. The rest you can ponder over. It’s already in the will, so you’ve got time to let it all sink in. Wouldn’t want you to make a decision like this today on the spur of the moment.” Frankie used her tissue to wipe Tessa’s cheeks. “Like I said, I’m so glad you are here for us. I couldn’t love you more if I’d known you since you were born. It must be a genetic thing, because having you completes the circle for me and I’m okay with this thing that I can’t do anything about.”
“I can’t bear this.” A fresh batch of tears left more long black lines of mascara on Tessa’s cheeks.
Frankie held her by the shoulders and narrowed her eyes. “We won’t talk about this again unless you have something to say to me, because I want so bad for this journey to last at least one more week and maybe two. But when I see Ivy failing, we will head east and we’ll get there as fast as we can, even if we have to get on an airplane and let you kids bring Mollybedamned home by yourselves.” She pulled Tessa into a fierce embrace. “And I left the car to you. It doesn’t have good memories for Lola, but I hope that it does for you. Enough of sadness. I want to hear about you now. The time is getting away from us even today. I figure we might have half an hour left before Melody starts bellyachin’ that she’s hungry. And we need to talk about something else so this won’t be the last thing on our minds when we go back to the rest of the family.”
Tessa gladly changed the subject. “You already know most of it,” she said.
“Boyfriends?” Frankie smiled.
“Not right now. I thought I was marrying the right man and we were planning a wedding and then he broke up with me on Christmas Eve last year. His mama wasn’t happy with the engagement because I’m adopted and they didn’t know what kind of people I came from. His reason was that I wasn’t passionate enough. He said that he needed someone with more fire and spunk than I have,” she said.
“Darlin’, nobody could ever say a Laveau wasn’t blessed with passion. We love our menfolks, sometimes too much, but we do love them. And I was a Beauchamp before I married and honey, they don’t make women any hotter than that.”
“You and Ivy both have Cajun names. You’d think you’d be living in Louisiana instead of me,” Tessa said.
They talked much longer than thirty minutes. Long enough for Frankie’s coffee to grow cold, but she finished it anyway. “My daddy come from across the border in New Orleans to Beaumont to work in the oil fields. He met my mama when he went to dinner at his boss’s house one evening, and they eloped six weeks later. Same thing with Ivy’s daddy. He was from over in a little town called Jeanerette and he come over here to work on a cattle ranch and met his wife there. So we’ve got some Cajun in us and I don’t have to tell you how passionate that blood is.” Frankie patted her on the knee. “So don’t you let no man be makin’ you feel like that. Look at that clock up there on the wall. I can’t believe we’ve talked this long or that I’ve gone so long without a cigarette.” She laughed.
The elevator doors slid open and Melody stepped out with her eyes on her phone and her thumbs doing double time. “Aunt Ivy told me to come ask when we’re ordering something to, like, eat or if we’re going out for whatever this meal is. Two o’clock is late to call it lunch or dinner and, like, too early for supper.”
“I’ll go with you and we’ll decide what we all want and send Branch out to get it,” Frankie said. “We’ll make a list for some snack food from whatever grocery store he can find for later this evening.”
“I could go with him and help get whatever you want,” Tessa offered.
“That would be nice. Give you some space before you have to face Lola,” Frankie said softly. “But don’t tell Branch anything other than the part about Ivy and only then if you have to.” Frankie motioned toward the elevator. “You run along, Melody, and tell Ivy what I said so she can be lookin’ at that sheet of places to order from. I need to tell Tessa one more thing.” Frankie stood up slowly. “Branch’s daddy—his name is Andrew, by the way and you’ll get to know him well—has an old faded velvet box that he will give you when he comes to explain things to you and Lola. It’s got my grandmama’s pearls in it that she wore on her wedding day. She gave them to my mama on her wedding day and my mama gave them to me when I married Lester. Lola won’t ever get married, so I’d be right honored if you’d wear them on your wedding day.”
“Frankie, those should be Lola’s even if she doesn’t get married.” The lump in Tessa’s throat refused to budge no matter how many times she swallowed.
“You are my future. You are the one who is going to do things right and have children that are part Laveaus and me and Lester will live on through them. And the pearls, well, I hope you will wear them.”
“Thank you. I promise I will.” Tessa wanted to throw a hissy right there in the hotel. Life wasn’t a damn bit fair.
Frankie hugged her tightly. “That makes me happy. You let Lola put them on you that day and be sure to wear something of Sophie’s, too. You are the perfect mix of us all.”
Branch stopped right in the middle of the produce aisle beside the apples and ran his forefinger down Tessa’s jawbone. “Your shoulders look like you are bearing the weight of the world, and your eyes are so sad they make me want to cry. And grown men aren’t supposed to be sissies. What’s wrong, Tessa?”
“Frankie told me that Ivy isn’t going to live very long,” she blurted out.
He sighed deeply, removed his hat and placed it over his heart. “So she knows, then?” He draped an arm around her shoulders. “Does she know about the time frame?”
Tessa picked up a small bag of apples. “Yes, she does, and it breaks my heart to see her sad.”
Branch put four oranges in a plastic bag and added them to the cart.
She picked up a box of doughnuts and tears started rolling down her cheeks again. He drew her close to his chest, both arms around her right there in the produce aisle of the Walmart store. “This is even harder on you than when Ivy told you, isn’t it?”
She managed a nod in among the sobs and he rubbed her back with the palms of his hands. Several people walked past them but no one mattered.
“Ivy does like doughnuts, but then so does Frankie. They should have all they want,” he said hoarsely as he pulled a snowy-white hankie from his pocket and dried her tears. “Don’t cry, darlin’. Frankie will manage. She has Lola and now you. You really make her happy.”
She blinked back more tears. “I just met them and started liking them. Hell, not liking them. I’ve fallen in love with the whole bunch of them and now they’re being taken away.”
She handed the hankie back to him and he wiped his own eyes before putting it away. “And I’m sorry about Ivy, but if I know her at all, she wouldn’t want anyone fussing or worrying. So we’ll make this a wonderful journey for her and for Frankie because she’ll need all the memories to hang on to when her friend is gone. I can’t imagine . . .”
She pushed away from him and looked into his eyes and there it was again, that opening of the soul as well as the heart. “Me, either,” she said, wondering if he was thinking about losing her as much as she was him.
It was after three when they returned to the hotel. The car provided by the hotel pulled up under the awning. The driver hopped out and grabbed a luggage cart, loaded all their purchases on it, and asked Branch which room he wanted it taken to.
“I’ll push it up there, and thanks for taking us to so many places.” Branch slipped a tip into his hand. “Thank you. We sure couldn’t drive our car with that flat tire.”
“I can make arrangements to have it fixed for you by checkout time in the morning,” he said.
“Great! And tell them that we’ll need two new tires, one put on the car and one to be used as a spare. Just call my room when they get here and I’ll come right down with the car keys,” Branch said.
“Will do, and thanks for the tip.” He smiled.
Tessa helped guide the cart into the elevator. “I’m wondering where they’re going to put all this stuff and how in the world we’re going to get what we don’t eat in the trunk tomorrow.”
“We’ll figure out a way. I’m hoping we don’t have to sleep in any more barns, although I wouldn’t be averse to sleeping with you in a big bed,” he said.
“Hush,” she said.
Branch tipped her chin up with his fist. “You smiled and it reached your eyes.”
She tiptoed, meeting him halfway and needing the kiss more than he ever could. It didn’t have time to be fire hot, but it satisfied the longing in her heart and soul before the elevator doors opened and an elderly couple stepped to one side to let them out with the cart.
“Something in there smells good. Where did you go?” the man asked.
“A Mexican place, an Italian place, a rib joint, and a burger shop,” Branch said.
“And the grocery store,” Tessa chimed in.
“It’s the newlywed munchies, Hazel.” The man kissed his gray-haired wife on the cheek. “Remember when we were on our honeymoon and couldn’t get enough food?”
“Back in them days we couldn’t get enough of anything.” She giggled.
Branch stopped the cart in the middle of the hallway, not ten feet from Frankie’s door, and grinned. “You are cute when you blush.”
“So are you,” she said.
He touched his cheek with the palm of his hand. “I’m not blushing.”
“Yes, you are, and it’s sexy. I didn’t know menfolks did that, but it says you have a sensitive side and all us women like a man who’s got a soft heart, especially for children and old folks. By the way, you could have told them we’re not on our honeymoon.”
“I didn’t want to burst their happy bubble,” he said.
“I know exactly what you mean. Now let’s get this food into the room before those other four crew members wither up and die of starvation,” she said.
Branch knocked on the door and yelled, “Room service.”
Melody quickly threw it open and stood to one side.
“It’s about time,” Frankie yelled over the television. “My stomach thinks my throat has been cut.”
Ivy threw a hand over her heart. “And I was lookin’ up the phone number for the nearest undertaker. Figured I only had about thirty more minutes if you didn’t get here with those ribs. What took you so damned long?”
“We didn’t have Mollybedamned to drive.” Branch was already busy delivering the various restaurant sacks to the folks who ordered them.
“And I believe that grocery store checker had two speeds—slow and stop,” Tessa said. “But the food is here now. Everything is going to be perfect!”
“Yes, it is.” Frankie blew her a kiss.
Tessa reached up and grabbed it in her hand and stuffed it in her pocket.
“Frankie used to do that when Lester blew her kisses,” Ivy said.
The sun was barely a sliver of orange on the distant horizon that evening when Branch and Tessa left Frankie’s room after supper. His big hand closed over hers as he walked with her down the hallway. “I get a kick out of the way Frankie and Ivy banter back and forth with each other. My grandparents are about that age, but they don’t do that.”
“Neither do mine,” Tessa said.
Branch motioned toward a couple of wing-back chairs in front of the elevators. “Sit with me a little while and tell me about your family.”
She wiggled her hand free from his and sat down in the nearest chair. “Mama is
a tall, thin blonde and Daddy is tall with light-brown hair that’s got plenty of gray in the temples. He wears thick glasses and is a banker at a place that takes care of the casino money for the state of Louisiana. It’s not a bank like what you think of when you hear that word—only a few people work there, and their only client is the casinos. Mama teaches dance to students from age four through high school.” She wished the chairs were closer together so that he could hold her hand again. “And your daddy is a lawyer. What does your mama do?”
Branch moved the chair close to hers before he sat down and picked up her hand again, holding it on his lap. “She was a lawyer, but she retired last year. Now she does whatever she wants but most of the time she enjoys her grandkids.”
“How many grandkids?” There were sparks but better than that, her hand in his felt right.
“Four. My two older brothers each have two kids. Darrin has a boy and girl and Justin has two girls. This is nice, just talking like this.”
The elevator doors opened to their left, and a tall, willowy woman pulled a designer suitcase behind her. Dark hair floated to her shoulders and big brown eyes zeroed in on Branch.
Tessa suddenly felt a jolt of tension, and he squeezed her hand tighter.
The woman stiffened her back, snarled her nose, and narrowed her eyes, going from stunningly beautiful to downright evil in the blink of an eye. “So is this why you haven’t answered my calls or messages in days? Good God, Branch. Where did you get her? A bar? She’s not pretty enough for a whorehouse.”
Branch stood up, pulling Tessa with him. He slung an arm around her shoulders and glared at the woman. “Darlin’, I would like you to meet Avery. Avery, this is Tessa Wilson, and don’t judge her by your own half bushel. What are you doing in Perryton, Texas, anyway?” His words were beyond freezing cold.
She held up her left hand and there was a diamond the size of a dime flashing in the fluorescent lighting. “We need to talk in person and work this thing out. Did this cowboy tell you that we are engaged?”
The Wedding Pearls Page 18
