Tessa moved from the chair to the sofa and shifted both of Lola’s feet over into her lap. Like she had done so many times in the past when her mama came home from a hard day of dance classes, she massaged Lola’s feet.
“Did you never expect anything or did she cover all this up really well?” Tessa asked.
A sip of the whiskey gave her visible strength. “She’s taken longer naps lately and she’s gotten more forgetful, but I thought that it was part of getting older. But a brain tumor? Hank, are you sure you want to marry me with that in my background?”
“I’m very sure,” Hank said.
“I’m numb with shock. I need to ask her if she’s got her will up-to-date, especially since you’ve come into our lives, Tessa,” Lola said. “But how do I ask that without admitting that all this is reality and not a nightmare?”
Tessa stopped massaging and picked up the glass. “She asked me if I’d stay on the rest of my vacation, and that’s when she told me that she’d fixed things. I suppose it’s with Branch’s firm.”
“I’m sure it is and that’s a relief, knowing I don’t have to talk about that part of things. Did she tell you anything about the—” Lola stopped.
Tessa shook her head. “No, but I’ll bet it’s all laid out to the letter for her and Ivy both, and the lawyer has the papers. Changing the subject here, is that Frankie and Lester in that picture on the mantel?”
“On their wedding day. See the pearls?”
“Where is that dress? Does it still exist?”
“In her closet. It’s yellowed with age but every bead was hand sewn onto the lace by my grandmother. Why?”
“Why don’t you wear it? She looks to be about the same size as we are in that picture and you wouldn’t have to shop for a dress and . . .”
“I will if you will.” Lola smiled.
“If I will what?”
“I’ll wear that dress if when you get married, you’ll wear it, too,” Lola said.
“Deal.” Tessa raised her glass and Lola clinked hers with it.
Picking up the journal that night wasn’t easy, but there would be no sleep if she didn’t write things down. So she propped the pillows behind her in the big four-poster bed and started writing.
Come to Jesus day: it is written in stone. They are in the fancy care facility and Lola and I are in this house together. She’s right across the hall but it seems like she’s fifty miles away right now. I miss having her in the next bed from me. I miss hearing her move around in the morning and the rattle of the keys on her laptop as she typed messages to Inez and Hank.
Melody, in her sixteen-year-old innocence, did what we all wanted to do when she threw herself in Ivy’s lap and sobbed like a baby. Frankie says that we must have no sadness and no regrets, but I can’t. I simply cannot stop the tears or the regrets that I never knew her before. She’s been only two hours away from me my whole life, and I only had to ask Mama and she would have found Lola and Frankie. I have no doubt of that, because she’s the one that encouraged me to go on the trip.
My heart is broken, and that is all I can write on this come-to-Jesus day.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Poor old darlin’s,” Melody said softly.
“Don’t you poor darlin’ us,” Ivy said from her bed that Sunday morning. “We ain’t sleepin’. We’re only restin’ our eyes while y’all talk about wedding stuff.”
“Speak for yourself. I was sleepin’.” Frankie slung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up.
“Now that you are both awake, I’ve got a favor to ask, Mama,” Lola said.
“The answer is yes,” Frankie said.
“But you haven’t heard it yet.”
“Whatever you want, if I’ve got the money or the energy, then the answer is yes,” Frankie said.
“I want to wear your wedding dress when I get married, and Hank and I want to have the ceremony in our church in Boomtown. Branch could pick you two up in Mollybedamned and bring you to the church. The reception will be in the fellowship hall, and when you get tired, he could bring you back here.” Lola talked fast.
Tessa held her breath.
Melody’s chin quivered. “But I won’t get to go because I have to work here on weekends.”
Lola sat down beside Frankie and held her hand. “We’ll have it at seven on Saturday night so Melody can be there. Besides, she’s going to sit at the guest book and Tessa is going to stand up with me.”
Ivy pumped her fist in the air. “One more last hoo-rah, Frankie! I’ll tell the folks here to be sure Blister is loaded up for the day. We’ll rest for two days before the wedding so we’ll be all fresh and bushy tailed.”
“Humph,” Frankie snorted. “Our bushy-tailed days are over. Lola, I’ll do this, but you have to promise me that you won’t do something sneaky. I don’t want to go to the house or drive past it. We’ll get us a limo to take us to the church and I’ll put the pearls on you and then we’ll come back here when it’s all over. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am. And will you and Ivy walk me down the aisle and give me to Hank, Mama?” Lola asked.
Tessa’s eyes misted.
“Of course, we will. And honey, I can’t imagine why you’d want to wear my dress, but it makes me happy that you do. But I see you with a ringlet of roses in your hair, not my veil. Besides, it’s got a little chocolate stain on the corner that the cleaners never could get out, and I don’t want one thing to taint your wedding,” Frankie said.
“Hello,” someone said right after a light rap on the frame of the open door.
Tessa thought it was the voices in her head when she heard her mother’s voice. It still didn’t register that it was real until she saw Sophie standing in the doorway of Ivy and Frankie’s suite, and even then she thought she was seeing a ghost.
“Mama?” Tessa gasped.
“Sophie!” Lola’s eyes lit up.
Sophie opened her arms, but when Tessa pushed back her chair, she noticed that her mother’s eyes were set on Lola, not her.
“I’ve missed you so much.” Lola walked into her arms, and the two of them hugged each other like long-lost sisters.
“It was all for the best.” Sophie pushed back and studied Lola’s face. “She’s old enough now to understand. Now come here, Tessa Ruth, and hug us both. We all need it right now.”
“Mama, what are you doing here?” Tessa wasted no time crossing the room for a group hug.
“After we talked last night, I packed my bags, put a note on the dance studio saying that I’d be gone this week, and came for a visit. I’ve missed you these weeks. It’s the longest I’ve ever been away from you and I didn’t like it. Even when you went to college you came home every weekend. Where’s a good hotel?” Sophie asked.
“You’ll stay at the house with me and Tessa.” Lola shook her head at the suggestion of a hotel. “I’m so glad you are here. You can help me plan my wedding. I’m wearing Mama’s dress, but there’s so much more we’ve got to get done in a single week. And Tessa is standing up with me, but you have to be my matron of honor,” Lola said. “Come and meet my mama, Frankie, and our best friend, Ivy. And this is Melody, Ivy’s niece, who went on the trip with us. I’m sure Tessa told you all about us all.”
Frankie sat up on the edge of the bed and stuck out her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Sophie. Look at this, Ivy. The three of them could be sisters with all that blonde hair. The only thing that is different is their height and eye color.”
Sophie shook hands with Frankie and smiled. “This is a lovely place, and Tessa has fallen in love with the whole bunch of you.”
“Well,” Melody piped up, “we love her right back.”
“Hello, ladies.” Branch knocked on the door frame. Dressed in creased jeans and a pearl-snap shirt the same dark green as his eyes, he was freshly shaven and holding a black cowboy hat in his hands.
Tessa’s eyes traveled from his smile to the big silver belt buckle with what looked like a brand engraved on it, down the
tight-fittin’ jeans to his shiny eel boots. A cowboy from head to toe—maybe the sexiest cowboy on the whole planet, and both of her mothers were staring at him.
“Come on in here, Branch, darlin’,” Ivy said. “Tessa’s mama, Sophie, surprised us by coming for a visit.”
“I didn’t know.” Tessa mouthed the words silently.
He crossed the room in a few long strides, slung his left arm around Tessa’s shoulders, and stuck out his right hand. “I’m right pleased to meet you, ma’am. Tessa has talked so much about you that I feel like I already know you. We have a date to go to my ranch this afternoon for supper. Would you like to join us?”
Sophie put her small hand in his. “Not today. Maybe next time. Today, I understand my old friend here and I have some wedding plans to go over. Y’all have a good time.”
“We’re having supper here and then going back to the house,” Lola said.
Tessa caught the meaning loud and clear. Be home before too late, because I don’t know how to handle this alone.
Branch hugged Tessa closer to his side. “I know the three of you have lots to talk about, and with the wedding coming up so fast, you’ll need to work on that, so I’ll have her home by nine.”
“Thank you,” Lola said. “Now, tell me, Sophie, are you hungry? I can call down to the kitchen and have the chef send down a tray of finger foods.”
“That would be wonderful. I was too nervous to eat and too afraid to tell Tessa I was on the way for fear she’d tell me not to come, but I had to see her and I wanted to see you again,” Sophie answered.
“You look gorgeous, like a gypsy in that skirt and shirt, and I love the cowboy boots with it. And you do look enough like Sophie to be her biological daughter and yet you look like Lola, too,” Branch said when they were in the pickup.
Tessa let out a long sigh. “I’m in shock. And thank you for the compliment, but both of them in the same house for a whole week—I’m going to need Ivy’s flask, or at the very least a new bottle of Jack.”
Branch drove with one hand and held her close with the other one. “I’ll make sure there’s enough moonshine to keep the flask filled and get you a case of Jack if you need it. But really, once the shock of seeing each other again after almost thirty years wears off, they’ll be so busy catching up and talking wedding, I bet you’ll feel left out. That’s where I come in, darlin’.” He gently squeezed her shoulder. “We can go for ice cream or a dinner date or whatever you want. If the going gets too tough, pack a bag and come stay at the ranch.”
“Thank you, Branch. It doesn’t have to be a date. Just rescue me every day for a little while, even if it’s only to sit on the porch and talk.” She brought his hand to her cheek. “Being adopted never bothered me, but that was an awkward moment back there.”
“Why?”
“Because I could feel the friendship between them and I can’t explain it,” she said.
“It was like it took both of them to be your mama in that moment, wasn’t it?”
“I guess so, but I want to talk about something else.” Tessa didn’t want to analyze, talk the situation to death, or think about it right then. She was going to Branch’s ranch and that should take top priority. “How far is it to your ranch?”
“Ten minutes. I’m grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and I bought a chocolate cake and a can of cherry pie filling, so we’re having black forest cake for dessert, but before that we’re going to tour the ranch.”
“I should’ve brought other clothes,” she said.
“You are fine.” He smiled.
A few minutes later he turned off the road into a lane, across a cattle guard and through an arch with a sign swinging in the wind. “Welcome to The Ranch” had been burned into the old piece of rough wood, with the TR brand at both ends.
“So you meant it when you said The Ranch,” she said.
“It was named that when I bought the place, and I’ve never changed it.”
“I like it,” she said.
The lane led right up to a yard fence circling a long, low-slung ranch house made of natural stone. Roses of every color bloomed in the flower bed in front of the wide porch that swept across the entire front.
“Do you have a green thumb?” she asked.
“Not me, but my foreman’s wife, Gracie, does, and she loves the roses. They live in the bunkhouse with their three kids, but since I’m here on weekends, they get those days off. They’re visiting relatives in Conroe today. If you come back through the week, you can meet them, and believe me, when Gracie cooks you’ll get more than hamburgers and store-bought cake. My culinary skills don’t reach very far,” he said.
He parked the truck right outside the yard fence and helped her out, stopping long enough to pin her against the truck for a series of kisses that sent her pulse into overdrive and her heart to thumping.
“I thought you might need a little dose of medicine since I didn’t see you at all yesterday,” he said.
“I was getting low.” She cupped his cheeks in her hands and kissed him. “I like this place. It’s peaceful. The house looks old and like it could tell us some stories if it could talk.”
“It was built about seventy years ago and has had a few remodels. It probably needs another one, but I’m not good at that kind of thing and those interior decorators charge a lot of money.” He slung the gate to one side and let her enter first, shut it behind him, and grabbed her hand. “Tour of the house first and then the ranch and maybe a cold beer?”
When he reached for the doorknob, the door flew open, and for the second time in less than thirty minutes, Tessa thought surely she was seeing ghosts.
Avery Prescott stood not three feet from her.
Wearing tight jeans and a cute little black lace apron with ruffles over a pristine white shirt, Avery was barefoot and free of all makeup. A sassy little ponytail swung playfully from side to side and with that smudge of flour on the tip of her nose, she looked like she belonged in the house.
“I had no idea you’d be bringing company home. I parked my car around back so I could surprise you, darlin’. Come right on in, Teresa. I’m glad to see you again. Tell me again, are you a client of Branch’s?”
“It’s Tessa and I’m not a client, I’m his girlfriend,” Tessa said.
“Don’t be silly. An engaged man doesn’t have a girlfriend. I’m making your favorite for supper, darlin’. There is a pecan pie in the oven and we’re having fried chicken. It’s not quite time to start that, so I’ll pour us a glass of wine and we can talk,” she said.
Branch planted his feet and refused to move an inch into his own house. “What are you doing here? Didn’t I make myself clear enough, Avery?”
“It’s like this. I hate losing and you love your brothers, so you are going to marry me. Tomorrow, six months down the road—I don’t care about the date, but I’m moving in here as of tomorrow morning. The van is bringing my furniture and taking this shabby crap out of here,” she said. “We’ll discuss that after we eat. You can stay or go, Teresa, it’s up to you, but this is not going to bode well for you.”
“We’ll talk right here, and then you are leaving,” Branch said.
Avery pushed the screen door open and held it with her bare foot. “I’m pregnant, and you will marry me or else I’m going to pick one of your married brothers and claim it belongs to him. By the time the baby is born in six months, whichever brother I decide on will have his reputation ruined, probably his marriage in shambles, and he’ll be lucky to get a job as a pro bono lawyer in some remote boondock town in the backwoods of Kentucky. You’ve got until the pecan pie is done to make up your mind which way it goes.”
“You don’t want children,” Branch said.
Avery’s smile was so sarcastic that it looked downright evil. “And that has not changed, but you do, so you can raise this baby.”
Branch took a step backward. “It’s not mine. Get out,” he said coldly.
“Okay, have it your way, but know that you
could have stopped what is about to happen.” She pulled off her apron and tossed it on the floor, picked up her purse from the sofa, and slipped her feet into bright-red high heels.
The only thing that went through Tessa’s mind right then was that she’d never wear red heels again.
It probably took less than two minutes for Avery to stomp off the porch, circle the house, and get into her cute little sports car, but it felt like an eternity plus three days.
“I’m so sorry about this, but plans have changed,” Branch said.
“I can call Mama and Lola to come and get me. You do what you have to do,” Tessa said. Could this day get any stranger? If so, she intended to be in her new bedroom with the door locked and the shades pulled until after midnight.
“Nothing doing. I met your mother, so you can come on into Beaumont with me and meet my family,” he said. “But first we’ve got to take a pie out of the oven and trash it. I may never eat pecan pie again.”
She shuddered. “Me, either. What is the matter with that woman?”
“I told you before. She hates to lose.”
“I think she has a screw loose.”
“Probably more than one,” Branch said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Branch’s law firm was located on the penthouse floor of a twelve-story building that required a key card for the elevator to go up there. When he removed it from his pocket and stuck it in the slot, the fight-or-flight mode struck Tessa—with strong emphasis on the flight business. She expected the elevator to open into a lobby area but oh, no, to add icing to the nerve-racking cake of the day, the doors slid open silently, and there was Branch’s family.
Three women and three men stared right at her.
The oldest woman had a hip propped on a long conference table, and she quickly pushed away from it. She wore high heels and a cute little fitted red suit, and her gray hair was styled in big fluffy waves. She crossed the room and hugged Branch.
The Wedding Pearls Page 27
