The Wedding Pearls

by Carolyn Brown

  “But Mama, we can get second, third, and fortieth opinions. We can fly you anywhere in the world. Someone can cure this.” Lola grabbed Frankie’s hands and refused to let go.

  “I’ve gotten four opinions. More won’t matter, my child.” Frankie kissed Lola on the cheek. “Be happy for us. We have been given the greatest gift of all. We know about when our time is done, and we’ve used it to have fun with the people we love. We’ll polish off the rest by having a good time every day when y’all come to visit. So no tears and no regrets.”

  “You old hussies. You meant it when you said this was a come to Jesus committee meeting,” Lola said between sobs as she clung to her mother.

  “We did, and when we leave this room, there will be no more tears or sadness, only happy times.” Ivy replaced the tubes and sat down on the sofa.

  Melody bailed off the bed, knelt beside Ivy, and buried her head in her great-aunt’s lap. “I will never forget this trip.”

  “That’s right, baby girl. Every year, you set aside an hour to sit on the porch or go to the park or lie down in the backyard and look up at the clouds and remember our fabulous trip.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The ride from the hotel to Beaumont was surreal. The rolling hills, the tall pines, the humidity said they were nearing home. And yet home would never be the same again. Two weeks in an old Cadillac with five complete strangers had changed Tessa’s life forever. Those two old gals snoring in the background had engraved their names upon her heart as family. The teenager with the red eyes between them, using her thumbs to write messages to her friend, had become her little sister.

  Lola wasn’t her mother, but there was something there that went beyond friendship. And Branch? How could she feel like this about a man she’d known two weeks?

  At the county line, Lola’s strength played out. She grabbed a paper napkin from the glove compartment and buried her face in it, giving way to the pent-up tears she’d been holding back. “I . . . can’t . . . do . . . this,” she said between sobs.

  Tessa leaned her head over on Lola’s shoulder. “None of us can face it alone. It’s going to take all of us pulling together to get through it.”

  Leaning her cheek against Tessa’s, Lola tucked the soaked napkin into her purse and got out a clean one. “Thank God you are here. I feel so empty. I can’t imagine how I’d get through it without you.”

  They reached for each other’s hand at the same time, and comfort flowed from one to the other until Branch pulled up in front of a posh-looking place on the outskirts of Beaumont.

  “We’re here, but I have to admit I didn’t think it would look like this.” Branch stared at the meticulously kept grounds and the sparkling-clean windows.

  “You mean this is where I’ll be working on weekends? It looks like something out of Hollywood,” Melody said in awe.

  Frankie stretched and yawned. “Wake up, Ivy, we’re here. I’m hungry, so I hope they have dinner all laid out for us and that the chocolate cream pie has a foot of meringue on the top.”

  “Okay, okay!” Ivy grumbled. “Well, would you look at that? Blister’s light is sayin’ that I’ve only got about twenty minutes to get inside. I understand they’ve got lots of little Blisters lined up ready to take care of me, but I think I’ll unplug him and have a cigarette before I enter the pearly gates.”

  “Good God!” Lola screeched.

  Ivy laughed out loud. “He will be good if he don’t strike me graveyard dead before I get to see the inside of this fancy place, but I do intend to have one last smoke before I go in there.”

  “Well, shit, Ivy,” Frankie fussed. “They do have a smoking lounge for us old smokers. You don’t have to smoke out here in the heat. And it’s got a fancy ventilation system so our clothes will never smell like smoke again.”

  “Well, shit, Frankie,” Ivy repeated. “I love going to sleep at night with the aroma of eau de smoke all up in my hair and clothes. Frankie came over here and booked the whole thing before she told me and convinced me it was the way to go, so it’ll be my first time through those pearly gates,” she told the others.

  Lola looped her arm in Frankie’s. “I will never like this, Mama. Let’s get in the car and go on home to Boomtown. I’ll make the call and tell these people you’ve changed your mind.”

  Frankie kissed Lola on the cheek. “I didn’t ask you to like it, darlin’. I asked you to accept it. Now crawl out of the car and come and see my new elaborate digs. Branch, you get mine and Ivy’s suitcases out of the trunk. And Melody, you can pull Blister inside.” Twisting away from her daughter, Frankie patted Mollybedamned on the hood. “You’ve been a good and faithful friend, old girl. Now I’m handing you off to Tessa and I expect you to treat her as good as you have treated me. Take her on lots of trips and journeys and help her make all kinds of beautiful memories.”

  Branch slipped an arm around Tessa. “Don’t cry. This has to be hard on her. She loves this car.”

  “I do, too, but I love her more,” Tessa whimpered.

  Frankie stiffened her back. “Ivy, for God’s sake, finish that damn cigarette so we can get out of this heat. Hell, I remember when you only got three drags off a smoke and now it takes you half an hour to finish one.”

  A man dressed in neon-green scrubs rushed down the stairs and took the suitcases from Branch. “We’ve been watchin’ for you, ma’am. Y’all come right on in. Dinner has been laid out and a table set for six. The food will be brought in as soon as you are ready. I’m Mason, and I’m one of the many people who will be seeing to Frankie and Ivy’s every need or whim.”

  Tessa didn’t give a tiny rat’s ass if there was an army taking care of Frankie and Ivy. They should be at home in Boomtown and the people taking care of them should be family.

  “The doctors wear purple and the nurses wear blue,” Frankie explained as she led the parade inside the glass doors. “We’ll be having roast beef and hot rolls today with chocolate pie for dessert. Side dishes include potatoes and fresh green beans cooked with lots of bacon. Ivy got to choose the menu but I chose the dessert.” Frankie talked the whole way across the cobblestone walkway and the wide shady veranda with gorgeous morning glory vines growing up the pillars and into the enormous lobby. “And if you will let us know what day you will be visiting, we will plan whatever you want. We have a chef and our doctors will be visiting us here so we don’t have to go sit in those damned boring waiting rooms.”

  Mason opened the door into a gorgeous room and stood to one side. “And here we are. We strive to give only the best to our lovely guests.”

  An archway separated the sitting room–dining room combination from a lovely bedroom. A glass-topped coffee table between two facing sofas and a pair of those fancy lift chairs was situated next to floor-to-ceiling glass panels looking out over a beautiful garden with a fountain in the middle. Nearer to the door, the dining room sported a table with six chairs, all set up for them with china, crystal, and silver.

  A vision of paper plates and barbecue, soup in disposable bowls, and takeout Chinese food flashed through Tessa’s mind. If only she could take a step back, she’d do it gladly.

  Beyond the archway there were two queen-size beds with a nightstand between them. Not so very different from the hotels where they’d stayed the past two weeks except in luxury. Again Tessa wished she could spend one more week in those places, back before she knew about Frankie’s and Ivy’s illnesses.

  Frankie went straight to her bed and picked up a remote control device. “This one calls the nurse. This one calls the doctor. This one calls the chef. And this one is magic. Watch.” She smiled as she pushed it. A big-screen television flipped over and descended from the ceiling. “What do you think of that, Ivy?”

  “You’re showing off,” Ivy said.

  “Am not!”

  Ivy hip-butted her. “Are too.”

  “When you are ready for the food to be served, push the button, and if you need anything, I’m here until eight this evening
and then Loretta will be your evening concierge,” Mason said.

  Frankie pushed the button before he had time to get out of the room and told the chef they were ready for lunch.

  “In here we don’t have dinner and supper.” She laughed.

  “We have lunch and dinner and snacks anytime we want.” Ivy smiled. “Now, bossy butt, tell us where we are supposed to sit. And we ain’t playin’ musical chairs, so wherever she says today is where it’ll be all the time.”

  Frankie assigned seats so that Lola was on one side of her and Tessa on the other. “See, it’s going to be a lark living here with Ivy. We’ll be together and we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it. And when you come to visit we’ll have fun. You do not need to have bad memories in the house where you grew up or where we’ve made good memories since you came home to me almost thirty years ago. Trust me, Lola, I know what I’m doing.”

  “Will you be brave enough to admit it if you have second thoughts?” Lola asked.

  “I will, but I won’t. Ivy and I are going to finish up this business in style and we’re going to look forward to seeing Melody on weekends and you other three anytime you can get here on weekdays. Here comes our dinner, so we’ll see if the chef is any good. If he isn’t, I’ll fire his ass and hire a new one,” Frankie said.

  Leaving Frankie and Ivy alone, even in the lap of luxury, was the hardest thing Tessa had ever done. Melody sat in the middle of the backseat and cried all the way to her house. She threw herself into her mother’s arms at the door, and Tessa wished that her mother was there so she could do the same.

  Neither Lola nor Tessa made a move. They’d started this trip in the front seat and they’d finish it the same way. With fingers intertwined, she held Lola’s hand on her thigh the whole way to the house in Boomtown.

  “I can’t get out. I can’t go in there and face that house without Mama. She’s always been here.” Lola held on to Tessa’s hand in a death grip.

  “What would you give your mama right now?” Tessa asked.

  “Anything in my power,” Lola answered.

  “Then get out of this car and let’s go inside the house, because this is all she’s wanting from us. She wants the time we spend with her to be fun and quality, not worrying with pills or food or sickness,” Tessa said.

  Lola let go of her hand and with a long sigh got out of the car. “I hate this.”

  Tessa slid out behind her. “That which does not kill us—”

  Lola finished it for her. “—makes us stronger. By the time this is over I’ll be able to bench-press Mollybedamned.”

  They walked together into the house with Branch bringing their luggage inside behind them. Cool air greeted them, but the house lacked the sparkle, the pizzazz that Frankie and Ivy brought to it.

  “Want me to take it upstairs for you?” Branch parked the suitcases and the other baggage at the foot of the staircase.

  Lola shook her head. “Most of it needs to be sorted and washed. We’ll take care of it.”

  Tessa heard tires crunching on gravel, then someone running across the wooden porch. But she still jumped back when the door flew open and a tall, lanky man wearing jeans and a pearl-snap shirt went straight for Lola and gathered her into his arms. “I’m so sorry, darlin’. What can I do to help?”

  She clung to him. “Just be here. Don’t leave me.”

  The moment was awkward with four of them standing there, not knowing what to do next, so Tessa spoke up first. “I’m Tessa and this is Branch Thomas.”

  “I’m Hank.” He nodded.

  “I’ll put Mollybedamned in the garage and . . .” Branch said hoarsely.

  Tessa grabbed his hand and held on tightly. “I’ll go with you.”

  They made it to the car before his shoulders slumped and he put his hand over his eyes. “Dammit! A grown man controls his emotions. He stays strong for the ladies and he doesn’t cry, for God’s sake. And you’ve already seen me go all sensitive once and that’s enough.”

  Tessa wrapped her arms around him. “You have done all those things, darlin’. But the heart can only take so much. It’s okay if you are angry or emotional. It’s been a hell of a day.”

  “What do you intend to do with this?”

  “You mean this whole situation or Mollybedamned?” Tessa asked.

  “The Caddy.” He opened the driver’s door and she slid into the middle spot. He’d regained his composure by the time he started the engine, but Tessa could still feel the pain in his heart.

  She swallowed hard and put on a brave face. “I intend to take her out every year on the first day of September. Some years it might be for a weeklong drive down the coast; sometimes it might be for a day trip to Galveston for an ice cream cone or a hamburger. But I’m going to put the top down and let the wind whip through my hair and remember Frankie and Ivy and Melody and you, Branch. And she’s never leaving Texas, not even to go across the border to New Iberia to visit my folks.”

  He used the remote to raise the garage door and parked the Caddy back in her original spot. “Visit? You mean you’re leaving her here?”

  “That’s right. Lola won’t mind, I’m sure. Frankie didn’t let Mollybedamned leave the great state of Texas and neither will I. She’s a Texas girl, full of sass, and this is where she belongs.”

  He hit a button on the remote to close that door and open another where his pickup truck had been parked. “Are you going to be all right? This is a big burden.”

  “Frankie said it was a gift, knowing approximately when a person’s time is up.” She smiled and then giggled and then burst out into laughter. “It’s like the ending of Steel Magnolias. Only this isn’t the end of our journey. It’s more like the middle. Still, if those two were sitting on a bench like Clairee and Ouiser, they’d be arguing and fighting, and it’s not funny but it is and I’m so tired of crying. And you’ll think I’ve lost my mind. I’ve got to shut up. I talk too much when I’m nervous.” She stopped to catch her breath.

  Branch tipped her chin up and kissed her before she could say another word. “I understood every word of what you said.”

  It was one of those you had to be there moments. No one could have gotten a single sane thought from what she’d said, but Branch had lived through every moment of it, so he understood, and for that, Tessa loved him. “Who would have thought something so serious could be funny? Or that they’d make such a big joke of dying.”

  “Only Frankie Laveau and Ivy Dupree could pull that off.” He picked her up and set her on the fender. He traced her lips with his forefinger. “You are so damned beautiful that it takes my breath away, Tessa. I love the way you fit into my arms and I love your heart.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “My heart?”

  “Yes, your heart. It’s kind and good and honest. You care for people and about them and there’s not a fake bone in your body. I love that about you,” he said.

  “That may be the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.” She blushed.

  “Then you must have been dating idiots all your life. I’ll pick you up at two at Frankie’s on Sunday and take you for a tour of the ranch? If you ride with Lola, then I can have you all to myself and I’ll bring you home when you get tired of the ranch.”

  She nodded. How could I get tired of any place on earth if Branch Thomas was there?

  Maw-Maw said that you can tell the worth of a person by their eyes, and when Tessa went back into the house that afternoon, she measured Hank by that yardstick and he passed the test. He held up a glass of sweet tea and smiled.

  “Hello, Tessa. I made tea. Would you like a glass?” His voice wasn’t as deep as Branch’s. His brown eyes were soft and kind. His hair, graying in the temples, and his tall, lanky body were absolutely nothing like what Tessa had pictured when Lola talked about him.

  The strangest thing was that talking to him was not awkward and hearing him call Lola her mother wasn’t uncomfortable. By definition when Hank and Lola married, he would be her step-fat
her, and that wasn’t even weird.

  She went to the kitchen and stuck a glass under the ice dispenser in the refrigerator door. “Yes, thank you, but I can get it myself. I understand we have a wedding to plan this week.”

  So you’ve got a tutu mama and a tattoo mama. Lucky you to have a proper one and a wild one, both. One of them will understand your every mood.

  “I’m sure Frankie and my sister, Inez, will put their heads together and make it a bigger affair than going to the courthouse.” He pushed wire-rimmed glasses up on his nose and glanced worriedly toward the bathroom door.

  “Frankie is sure looking forward to putting a certain strand of pearls around Lola’s neck.” Tessa carried her tea from the kitchen to the den and sat down in a rocking chair. “Do you think Lola is going to be all right?”

  He shook his head. “No, but she’ll live with our help. You mean a lot to her and the fact that you are staying here means more to me than words can even say. I’d move in, but Frankie would have a fit if I did before we’re legally married, and we’re going to do everything we can to make her happy.”

  Lola wasn’t crying when she came out of the bathroom, but her eyes were still swollen. It was the bane of a blonde to have splotchy red streaks after a weeping jag, and it would take a few hours for those to disappear. She went straight for the antique sideboard, opened a lower door, and brought out a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Black Label and poured a double shot.

  “I need more than tea,” she said.

  Tessa set her glass on the table. “Pour two of those and I’ll join you. It might not be five o’clock, but it’s been a hell of a day.”

  Hank patted the place beside him. “I saved this spot special for you.”

  Lola put Tessa’s whiskey on the coffee table and sat down in Hank’s lap, wrapping her free arm around his neck.

  “I should go unpack. Which room am I staying in?” Tessa stood up, but Lola shook her head. “You come sit right here beside us so I can touch you with my foot. Don’t go. I need you both.”