The Wedding Pearls

by Carolyn Brown

  Branch took two steps back and started a treadmill at a fast pace. “Yes, we are.”

  “Why don’t you forget about this and come cool off with me? I’ve got all my homework done and I’m bored. Aunt Ivy and Frankie are sleeping again. I’ve never seen two old girls sleep as much as they have this past couple of days,” she said.

  “Give me time to at least run a mile,” Branch said.

  Tessa needed to cool off more than a bike ride or a jog on the treadmill. She wouldn’t mind a few ice cubes floating in the pool. What she definitely did not need was a workout and then a hot tub, not when her blood was fast rising to the boiling stage.

  She should not have looked back at him. No, sir, because he’d already worked up a sweat and all that masculinity, with wet sweat on his abdomen, only added gasoline to the fire going out of control in her gut. And then he winked, slow and deliberate, and it was so damned sexy that it flat-out took her breath.

  If Melody hadn’t grabbed her wrist, she might have stood right there and melted into a pile of nothing but boiling hormones. But some higher power understood, and a minute later she’d shed her shirt and her shoes. She climbed to the tallest diving board and then she was flying through the air, slicing into cool water that did little to bring her hot insides down from the boiling point.

  “Wow, that was a beautiful dive.” Melody clapped from the shallow end of the pool, where she was getting wet an inch at a time. “Did you take swimming lessons?”

  Tessa swam over to the steps leading down into the pool and sat down on the bottom one with only her shoulders and head out of the water. “From the time I was four. Mama found out that unlike dancing, I could swim, but forget golf, tennis, or ping-pong.”

  Melody took another step into the cold water. “Well, you are sure good at it. I took lessons and I could save myself from drowning but I’m not good at it. Why hadn’t you done that before? We’ve been in lots of pools on this trip.”

  “I needed to cool off fast,” Tessa admitted honestly.

  Melody took a deep breath and ducked all the way underwater. She dog-paddled to the side and leaned back, using her elbows as props on the side of the pool. “Hey, do you think I need to be, like, worried about Aunt Ivy and Frankie? They don’t seem as feisty as they were, like, when we left on this trip. Remember how they were yelling and carryin’ on. Embarrassed the hell out of me, but I, like, understand them better now.”

  “You just worry about stayin’ straight when we get back to school,” Tessa said.

  “I’m not gay,” Melody protested.

  “I know that. I meant straight when it comes to smokin’ pot or maybe getting into fights with those hussy ex-friends of yours when they pester you about getting caught,” Tessa said.

  “Oh, I can whip their asses with, like, one hand tied behind my back.”

  “But you’re not going to, because that will get you expelled or put into detention for a very long time. You are going to learn to fight with words.”

  Melody looked at her like she’d grown an extra eye or maybe a set of horns were sprouting out from her wet blonde hair.

  Tessa splashed water toward her. “Okay, here’s a scenario that you might think about. Natalie struts up to you and says that you are an idiot and to never look at her man, Creek or River or whatever the hell his name is, again. What do you do?”

  “Slap the shit out of her,” Melody said. “Even though I don’t want the slimeball, she ain’t goin’ to talk to me like that.”

  Tessa shook her head. “No, ma’am, because that gets you in trouble for starting a fight. You grab your stomach, roll up in a ball, and throw yourself down on the floor, rolling around and screaming until a teacher comes. Believe me, she’ll be standing there in shock.”

  “And then?” Melody was hanging on every word.

  “And then you tell the teacher that Natalie is threatening you because you heard that she and her boyfriend are selling pot on the school property. You haven’t hit her and it looks like she’s hit you, but you didn’t say that she did or that you know she’s selling drugs. The teacher will have to tell the principal, who will talk to both of you.”

  “And what do I say?” Melody asked.

  “That you are so sorry and you don’t want to get anyone in trouble because you realize from your own problems how hard it is and then refuse to tattle.”

  Melody laughed. “That’s pretty good.”

  “For an ancient thirty-year-old?” Tessa asked.

  “I bet Aunt Ivy and Frankie can help me out, too. I’m cooled off now, so I’m going to see if they’re awake. This has been, like, an awesome trip, Tessa. I love all of you.” Melody stood, marched up the steps and out of the water, and was all but running when Branch appeared on the other side of the doors.

  “What’s she off in search of so fast?” Branch slid into the water and sat down beside Tessa.

  “Instant gratification,” Tessa said.

  “Sounds good to me.” He grinned.

  “Me, too, but not on this trip,” she said honestly.

  “Why?”

  “I wouldn’t be responsible for what I might say,” she answered.

  “Aha! You tell secrets when you are indulging in instant gratification, do you?” he asked.

  “Maybe, but then maybe I just make up stories. You won’t know on this trip, though.”

  His wet lips kissed her on the cheek. “I’m a patient man. I can wait until we get home.”

  Lola had several magazines scattered around her on the bed when Tessa picked up her journal that evening. She looked up and asked, “Are you keeping track of what all we’re doing on this trip in that thing? Seems like you write in it every night.”

  “No, I’m doing that on my laptop. This is for my emotions and my feelings about what happens on this trip. Mama gave it to me. Where’d you get all those magazines?” Tessa answered.

  “In that last convenience store we stopped at for a potty break.” Lola tossed one over to Tessa.

  “Brides’ magazines.” Tessa grinned.

  “Yes, ma’am. I want this to be small but perfect for Mama. Tell me about that journal thing and writing down your feelings. It’s, like, therapy in a book, right?”

  Tessa nodded. “I guess it is.”

  “Sophie always was smart. Maybe I would’ve been better if I’d stayed with her and your dad a little longer. But she’d often say that sometimes we have to get messed up before we can step up. I guess it takes some of us longer to realize what a chaos we’ve made so that we can take our place behind home plate and pick up the bat,” Lola said softly.

  “You know something, Lola, until right now I never thought of my journals as therapy, but I think they are,” Tessa said.

  “Oh, it’s therapy. Sophie knew you would need something to keep you in touch with the reality of your feelings. This can’t be easy for you, Tessa. Meeting us just that once and then going with us on a trip.”

  “It’s been good for me,” Tessa said.

  “Well, then get your therapy lesson and I’ll finish reading my magazines.” Lola smiled.

  Like always, Tessa picked up the pen from the end table and started to write:

  Day of kisses: Branch kissed me again tonight. It’s my antiawkwardness kisses and insane as it is, they work. When he kisses me then I’m not clumsy for at least twenty-four hours. I bet if Mama put me on the stage I could dance like a professional right after he kisses me.

  And yet today was also laced with sadness because Frankie and Ivy made the announcement that we are slowly starting to head toward home, and I know what that means. So in spite of the aura that surrounds kisses from Branch, there is a bittersweet end coming to our journey. I’ve promised to stay in Boomtown for the final two weeks of my vacation and I’m glad that I did, because I can’t think of being anywhere else. Lola has barely gotten her feet under her and she will need me.

  It’s good to be needed. Love is wonderful, but to be needed, that’s a whole new emotion.
One that carries responsibility. I hope I’m up to the task.

  Branch still doesn’t know and I feel bad that I can’t tell him. But Frankie trusted me with her secret and I simply can’t break that trust. She will tell the rest of the family when she wants. Until then it’s our secret.

  Melody is overjoyed to be going back to her school. She will have to work off the rest of her punishment by doing community service on the weekends at some posh nursing facility. I’m pretty sure that it’ll be the very place that Frankie and Ivy will be living, but that, too, is Frankie’s business. I can only hope that it is, because I’ve grown quite attached to that child. She’s the little sister I never had but always wanted and in my world, adoption is part of life. So I can adopt all these people as family if I want to.

  Today I talked wedding stuff with Lola and it was amazing. Totally wonderful to be included in the plans. She’ll be lovely when she and Hank stand up together before the preacher in that fancy place Frankie will be living. And it’s going to bring tears to my eyes when Frankie puts those pearls on her.

  So on the day of kissing, I’ve experienced elation with Melody, wedding jitters and joy with Lola, and pain with Frankie and Ivy.

  My heart is no longer empty, but it’s full of feelings. I never knew that a heart could hold so much. Matt was right. I wasn’t passionate with him. I didn’t feel like this. His kisses didn’t make my knees go weak like Branch’s do, and his touch on my cheek didn’t create flutters in my stomach. My heart was like a closed door in that relationship and today I’m glad that it didn’t work out because if it had, I would have never known what I feel right now. Even the pain tells me that I’m alive, that I’m needed and wanted, and the joys are surreal.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Can’t I stay in my room and, like, talk to Jill about school next week and our weekend job at that old folks’ place instead of going to a stockyard?” Melody groaned from the backseat of the Caddy.

  “No, you cannot. It will be good for you to see the cattle drive down the street,” Frankie said.

  Melody did her famous eye roll and sighed. “Bull crap and long horns! I can see that any day of the week by driving from my house out to Jill’s.”

  “You two are awful,” Lola said from the front seat.

  “We’re teaching her a lesson about not judging a book by its cover,” Frankie said.

  “What are you talking about?” Melody laid her phone down. “What is the stockyards really all about?”

  “It’s an adult party place, but there’s shopping and those old-time pictures that you can buy and lots of fun things, plus we’re staying at Miss Molly’s, which is a real haunted bed-and-breakfast place that used to be a bordello, so I don’t think you want to stay there alone,” Lola said.

  Melody was now wide-eyed and the whining had stopped. “Wow! For real? Who are the ghosts?”

  “I’m not sure, but since Miss Molly’s was a bordello seventy years ago, maybe it’s some of the folks who visited the place back then and had such a good time that they never wanted to leave,” Ivy answered.

  “A bordello. You mean like a whorehouse?” Melody asked.

  “That’s right,” Frankie said. “The child who is being punished for smoking pot in the bathroom gets to stay in a haunted whorehouse tonight.”

  “That is, like, awesome to the max. I’ve got to tell Jill and I’m staying awake all night so if I see a ghost I can take a picture of it. This is the best time of my life. I’m glad I got caught smoking pot because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have ever got to go with y’all. Can I go on every vacation with you, Aunt Ivy?”

  Tessa turned enough to catch the haunting smile that Ivy flashed toward Melody. “My next vacation is going to last too long for you to go, but every year August ends, you remember the summer you were sixteen and smile at all the fun we’ve had.”

  “How long is it going to last?” Melody asked.

  Ivy patted her on the bare knee. “You just remember our trip.”

  Tessa’s eyes burned, but she kept the tears at bay. She’d recorded everything that had happened since the day they’d had a parade out of town, and after what Ivy had said, she fully intended to keep writing about the days until the last one had passed. Then every year she would remember the whole trip when she got out her journal and read through it.

  When she glanced over her shoulder again, Frankie was staring out her side of the car at the cows and cotton fields speeding by at nearly eighty miles an hour. Ivy was intently studying the same view from her side of the car and Melody was busy sending a message on her phone.

  How would the child remember all this when she was thirty years old? How would Branch remember it? Would it be a minor blip in his mind or would it be the time that changed his whole life?

  She visualized herself sitting in a rocking chair on a wide porch in the fall of the year with a journal in her lap and a glass of sweet tea on the table beside her. Would she read from the journal to the little blonde-haired girl sitting in the rocker next to hers and tell her stories from a summer fifty years before?

  Lola nudged her with a shoulder. “Where were you? You looked like you got a glimpse into the past or something. Were you visiting with one of the ghosts from Miss Molly’s place?”

  “No, I got a glimpse of a lovely fall day someday in the distant future,” Tessa answered.

  “Tell me how you do that. I’d love to see where I am going to be in the future,” Lola said.

  “I don’t know how. It happens sometimes and until it comes to pass, I don’t put much stock in it,” Tessa answered seriously.

  Lola would find out tomorrow or the next day at the latest that she really hadn’t wanted to know what the future held, because her plans were about to be turned upside down. And worse than that, her heart was going to be broken. Tessa only hoped that she and Hank would be enough to put all the pieces back together for her.

  They reached the stockyards at two o’clock and Frankie already had their itinerary planned out. The first stop was at Uncle Charlie’s Old Time Studio, where Lola had made arrangements for them to have a full hour of pictures taken. Frankie and Ivy went first, all dressed up in the big dresses of the day and big hats with feathers and pistols by their sides.

  Melody whipped through the costumes and held up a short red dress. “I want to be a barmaid and you two should wear these and I’ll lie up on the bar and y’all can cock a leg up on a bar stool and we’ll all have pistols pointed at the camera.”

  Lola took the dress from her and nodded. “I love it. But I want to also have one made in the bride’s dress for Hank.”

  “Pick one out, Branch, because when we get all done with individual pictures I want one with all six of us to frame,” Frankie said. “If Tessa is a barmaid I think you should be a southern gambler with an ace up your sleeve.”

  “And an ace in Tessa’s garter, too,” Lola called out from behind the curtain where they were getting dressed.

  Branch raised a dark eyebrow at Frankie.

  “You are on the clock for this hour, so you will do what I tell you. If you mess with me I’ll make you dress up like a groom and Tessa like a bride and have one of those pictures taken where she’s standing behind you and you’re sitting down,” Frankie said.

  “Gambler it is.” Branch smiled.

  “This is so much fun,” Melody said. “I wish I had this dress for the fall formal at our high school. And this hat thing. It’s, like, out-of-this-world cute. Here we come. Y’all get ready to be wowed!”

  Lola threw back the curtain and three hot bar chicks stepped out. Tessa gasped when she saw Branch standing beside the fireplace mantel having his individual picture done. He had been transformed into a gambler with garters on his sleeves and a gun belt slung low around his hips. The curve of his lips made her want to take a running leap and wrap her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. Wouldn’t it be awesome if she really was a loose-legged bar maid and he was a gambler looking for a good-t
ime woman?

  “Now, that is eye candy. If he wasn’t, like, a hundred years older than me, I’d take him to the dance next month,” Melody said.

  “That stung,” Branch said.

  “Don’t worry, darlin’,” Frankie said. “She’s young and ignorant. We’ll hope that the stupidity fades with the youth. Now be still so me and Ivy can have our picture made with you before she has to hook her nose back up to the tubes.”

  After the photographer took several shots of the three of them in different poses, Ivy put her tubes back around her ears and crawled up on a bar stool. “Y’all go and get the rest of what you want done and then I’ll take them out for the ones of the whole bunch of us.”

  “Okay, you three hussies get in position at the other end of the bar,” Frankie said. “And Branch, you’re going to get in behind it and be the bartender.”

  “I thought I was a gambler.”

  “You are, but right now you’re going to pour whiskey for these hardworking barflies.” She laughed.

  “Real whiskey. I get to drink?” Melody asked.

  “Not on my watch,” Frankie said.

  “A little more leg to show off that garter, Tessa. A little more attitude from you, Lola, and a hell of a lot less from you, Melody,” Frankie said.

  The photographer kept snapping and Frankie continued her bossing, telling Branch to sit at the poker table and Tessa to act like she was about to eat him up with her eyes and to flash plenty of cleavage when she leaned over his shoulder to peek at his cards.

  “I could learn to like this business,” Branch said.

  “That’s great,” the photographer said. “Y’all are naturals. How long have you been a couple?”

  “They’re not,” Melody answered for them. “But they might be someday.”

  Tessa blushed. “You never know what the future holds.”

  “Thank God,” Melody said. “I thought this whole trip was going to be awful, and it’s turned out to be, like, amazing.”

  From Uncle Charlie’s they drove to Miss Molly’s and unloaded all their baggage; then Branch found a safe parking place for Mollybedamned. The lady of the place showed them to their rooms and Melody squealed and did a dance right there in the doorway when she realized she had her own private room and bath for the night.