by Debby Mayne
Now I’m feeling guilty. “Would you like to join me and go to my family reunion?”
“I wouldn’t want to impose.” The hopeful look on his face contradicts his words.
“Trust me, you won’t be imposing. You’ll get a lot of stares, and some of my more aggressive aunts and cousins are likely to grill you with questions, but if you think you can put up with that, you’re welcome to come.”
He laughs. “Sounds like my family.” He takes my hand in his, kisses the back of it, and looks me squarely in the eye. “I would love to go to your reunion with you.”
I was sort of hoping he’d say no, but I’m going to try to make the most of his acceptance. “A bunch of ’em will be camping out at my dad’s cousin’s mansion, but I don’t think I’ll do that.”
“Why are they doing that?”
I shrug. “Who knows? I’m thinking it’s so they can show off how big their house is. They have enough rooms for everyone, and I’m talking about a lot of people.”
“Is your family rich?” He clears his throat and grimaces. “That came out wrong. What I meant to say was—”
I laugh. “Some people in my family are rich, but it’s not like they had to do anything for it. After my grandparents started giving out land, some of them let the oil companies drill.”
“And they obviously struck oil.” Kyle shakes his head. “Some people are just lucky.” Then he tilts his head, scrunches his forehead, and gives me a half smile. “Did your parents get some of that land?”
“They did, but Daddy says he doesn’t want the ugly oil rigs on his property, even though they’re in plain sight from my aunts and uncles who have them.”
“That’s interesting. So what is your dad doing with the land?”
I shrug. “He’s talking about farming, but he and Mama still live in town, so I’m not sure what they’ll wind up doing.”
“Will you get some of that land?”
His question annoys me, pretty much like everything he says and does lately. “Why do you want to know?”
“Just curious.”
“I have no idea, and quite frankly I don’t care.” My feelings for Kyle have already started fading, and this conversation is adding fuel. In fact, all I want to do right now is get away from him so I can think. “I need to go home now.”
“Want to do something later?”
I shake my head. “Not tonight.”
He gives me a look of concern. “Are you mad at me?”
“Not really. I’m just tired.” I don’t want to tell him I’m tired of him. Tired of this conversation. Tired of being unsure of what I want. Maybe leaving that out is lying by omission, but I don’t have the energy to explain anything. Besides, I have way more thinking to do now.
“Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
After I’m by myself, I let out a deep sigh. This is one of those times I wish I had a sister. I’m the youngest one in the family, and the spacing between all of us is such that I’m pretty sure I wasn’t planned. My three older brothers are married and busy with their own lives, and as much as I like their wives, I wouldn’t even think about turning to one of them for advice.
Instead of going straight home when I get to Pinewood, I decide to drive around town. As I turn onto Main Street, I see Puddin’ standing at the window of La Chic. Maybe she or Shay will have time to chat. They’re both pretty cool.
There are a couple of empty parking spots on the side street, so I don’t have to walk far. Puddin’ is still by the window, so she grins when she spots me coming up the street.
“Hey there, Coralee.” She looks me up and down. “Don’t you look cute? I’ve always thought you’d be darlin’ if you only dressed a little better, and look at you. You’re cuter’n I ever even imagined.”
Shay laughs as she approaches. “I think you’re embarrassing the poor girl. Come on in, Coralee. What can we do for you? Are you looking for another outfit?”
“No, I’m looking for something else.” I clear my throat and lick my lips. “Actually, I need some advice.”
“That’s something we have in abundance.” Puddin’ nudges Shay in the side. “Right, Shay?”
“We do, but I’m not sure it’s always good.” Shay turns to face me and gives me her full attention. “What’s going on?”
I’m stunned. If anyone but Shay had told me what she did about Nate, I wouldn’t have believed it. But the fact that Shay has always been such a reliable source of information makes me think there’s a serious problem here.
Apparently, Nate has quite a history in the romance department, and it’s not good. He’s been engaged three times, and in each case, he’s either broken it off at the last minute or simply not shown up for the wedding.
When Shay told me that, I tried to laugh it off and pretend I was just trying to have a good time and never expected more from the relationship than that. But deep down, I’m hurt because I’ve been thinking there might be something special between us. No other guy has had me thinking about him all my waking hours. The guys I’ve gone out with before wound up being friends for a while until they met other girls. Now I get the whole relationship thing.
When I see something interesting or hear something funny, I can’t wait to tell him. I should have known it’s too good to be true. It really hurts to think that what we have isn’t as special as I thought.
“Maybe it’ll be different with you,” Sara says.
I lean my head toward her and give her a look she hates. “You’re kidding, right? Mama always said a leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
“No, I’m not kidding. Maybe those other girls weren’t as sweet or as pretty as you.”
“You and I both know guys don’t fall in love with a girl just because she’s sweet and pretty.”
Sara smiles at me like our mother used to when I was a teenager. “But those other girls probably weren’t as committed to their faith as you are.”
“I don’t even know how committed to his faith he is.”
“That’s a pretty important conversation y’all need to have before you get serious.”
“Did you talk about it with Justin before y’all eloped?”
“Of course we did, silly.” Sara shakes her head. “I wasn’t about to let myself fall in love with a guy and commit to being with him for the rest of my life unless he felt the same way about the Lord that I do.”
“Oh.” That’s something I didn’t know, but I believe her.
“Maybe if you talk about it . . .” Sara’s voice trails off. “But you might not want to bring up his failed engagements. You don’t want to betray Shay’s confidence.”
“She didn’t tell me in confidence, but I can ask her if she minds my discussing it with him.”
“Then what are you waiting for? If Shay says it’s all right, you and I both know that’s exactly what you should do.”
I ponder that for a moment before nodding. “I’ll do it, but I have to figure out how to bring it up.”
“Why don’t you just say something like ‘Have you ever been in a serious relationship before?’ That gives him a chance to tell you what happened without backing him into a corner.”
I smile at my sister. “Ya know, Sara, you’re smarter than I ever realized.”
“People always think you’re the smart one, but that’s just because I don’t talk as much as you do.”
I plant my fist on my hip and give her one of those eye-popping looks. “Seriously?”
She laughs. “I think we’re both smart, but you have more to say.”
We both laugh. “Okay, it’s settled. I’ll talk to him.”
“Tonight?” She lifts her eyebrows as she waits for my answer.
“Yes, tonight.”
She places her hand on my shoulder and puts her face inches from mine. “Don’t chicken out.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll talk to him as soon as we finish eating.”
“Why don’t you just get the q
uestion out of the way early in the date?”
“Why?”
Sara shakes her head. “Because I know you, and you’ll have a miserable time until it’s all out in the open.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
She points toward my room. “Now go start getting ready. I don’t want to have to entertain him while you put on your lipstick.”
I take a shower and get dressed in the outfit I’ve picked out for tonight. Then I apply some makeup and stand back and take a long look at myself in the full-length mirror. Overall, I’m happy with my reflection, but the one thing I can’t cover up is the fact that I couldn’t sleep last night. Concealer took care of the dark circles, but the bags and redness are still there.
When I walk out to the living room, I’m surprised to see Nate sitting there talking to my sister. She glances up and smiles. “Why don’t I get y’all something to drink before you leave for Mack’s? How about some ginger ale?”
I blink at her and then turn to Nate. He nods. “Yeah, ginger ale sounds good.” Then he looks back at me. “There’s something we need to talk about first.”
As soon as Sara leaves us alone, Nate takes my hand. “Shay called me this afternoon and said she told you about my past.” He purses his lips and shakes his head. “I’m glad she did that because I want to start fresh with you.”
I gulp. This is totally unexpected, and I have no idea what to say.
He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes for a few seconds, and then looks directly at me. “I’ve liked a lot of girls in the past, but I’m not so sure I ever really understood what love was all about.”
“But you got engaged, right?” I pause and look him in the eye. “You must have thought you loved them.”
He shrugs. “Maybe, but I think it was more that after dating them for a while, I thought that was the next step I was supposed to take.”
Now that he’s explaining, I have to ask what’s on my mind. “I can understand once, but three times?”
“I know that seems like a lot, but there’s a reason for all of them.”
I lean back and fold my arms. “So tell me about it. I’m all ears.”
Sara comes out of the kitchen with two glasses of ginger ale on ice. “Here ya go. I’ll be in my room if you need me.”
After she leaves, Nate picks up his glass, takes a sip, and puts it down. “The first time I got engaged, it was to the girl I started dating our junior year in high school. Her daddy always liked me, and he assumed we’d get married one of these days. We’d just gotten back from having dinner with her folks, when she said she wanted to talk about our future. I was so young then I didn’t know what to say when she asked if I was serious about her.”
“You obviously told her you were.”
He nods. “I did but only because I was afraid she’d start crying—something she did quite a bit when she didn’t get her way. As soon as I said I was serious, she squealed and ran inside to tell her parents we were about to get engaged. Her parents came out and congratulated us, and next thing I knew, I was caught up in a whirlwind of insanity.”
I can see how that might happen. “Was it hard to break up with her?”
He grimaces. “I didn’t exactly break up with her. I went to the church for the wedding, but as soon as I saw everyone sitting there waiting, I turned around and drove to Biloxi.”
“That’s terrible. I can only imagine how upset she was.”
“Yeah, she was upset, but I don’t think she was as mad as her daddy. I actually feared for my life—at least until she finally met someone else in college.”
“How old were you?”
“That was another problem. I was only twenty.” He shrugs. “I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, other than the fact that her daddy wanted me to work for him in the tractor business.”
“Okay, that’s one situation. How about the other two?”
“The second one was completely different, and so was the third.”
“Okay, so tell me about them, one at a time.” I lift my eyebrows to encourage him to continue.
“The second one was pretty aggressive. She always called herself assertive, but in all honesty, she took it a step too far. We were sitting around a table with a bunch of her friends, when she stood up and turned to me with this big old smile on her face. I wasn’t sure what was going on, until she told me it was time for us to cement our relationship and get engaged.”
“That’s awkward,” I admit. “Did you have any idea she might do something like that?”
“No. She totally blindsided me.”
We sit in silence as I process everything. I actually detect some similarities between the first two engagements. “How about the third one?”
He sighs. “She was super sweet, and I truly thought I was in love. Everything was going just fine, until I proposed—”
“So it was actually your idea this time?”
“Yes. But within days of my proposal, she started getting snarky and embarrassing me in front of my friends and family. She put me down constantly, until I couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Who broke things off?” I ask.
“I did. I told her she wasn’t the girl I thought she was. She didn’t sound too surprised, because she came right back at me and said that was the problem. She wasn’t a girl, but I was still a boy, and she wanted a real man.”
“Wow. Her fangs really did come out, didn’t they?”
“They sure did.” He takes my hand in his and grows silent as he stares at the floor. Then he looks directly back at me. “Thanks for being such a good listener. I suspect you have some questions, so go ahead and ask.”
“The first one makes sense because you were so young. But the second one . . . why didn’t you tell the one who proposed to you that you needed to talk to her alone before answering her in front of her friends?”
“I know now that’s what I should have done.” He shrugs. “I was so caught off guard I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“And the third one . . . How long did y’all date before you got engaged?”
“About six months.”
I think about how my sister dated Justin for just a couple of weeks, and they seem perfectly suited for each other. But she’s right. They’ve known each other for years, and they had that talk about faith.
He clears his throat as he looks down. “I know that’s not long, but I thought I knew her well enough, and she seemed perfect in a lot of ways.”
“Did you love her?”
“I thought I did, but now I realize it was something else.” He raises his gaze to mine. “More fascination than anything. She always did things to surprise me, like blindfold me and drive me to a park where she had a picnic set up.”
“I can see how you might get caught up in the excitement.”
“So . . .” He forces a smile. “I met Shay through her brother who delivers packages to the bank. Digger and I became fishing buddies, and one day when he dropped off some stuff around noon, we decided to go for lunch. Shay stopped by, and then she and I became friends.”
“Were you and Shay . . .” I’m not sure how to ask, so I start over. I know he’s quite a bit younger than Shay, but that doesn’t matter to some people. “Did you ever—”
“If you’re trying to ask if Shay and I were ever romantically involved, the answer is no. I like her a lot, but we’re more friends than anything. She helped me through the difficult time after Amy and I split up.”
“Does Shay know all the details of your three engagements?”
He shakes his head. “Only what I told her. She knows I’ve been engaged three times, though, which is why she said she told you.”
I’m much more confident now, but I’m not sure what to say next. He picks up his ginger ale and stands.
He reaches for my hand. “Now that you know about my sordid past, do you still want to go out with me?”
I don’t care what Mama and Daddy say, I’m not spending the wh
ole weekend at Julius’s house. Being there for the food is one thing, but overnight? That can only spell trouble. And I can’t believe Mama doesn’t get that. The thought that she might be testing me has crossed my mind.
Daddy has always been pretty clueless about what us kids are going through, even though he spends time with us. He’s more our fun person, but Mama’s always there for everything else. She always has a lot of things to say about everything, and one of the things she has said over and over is, “Don’t put yourself in front of trouble, or it will take you down.”
She’s right. So why would she put me in the position of having to deal with Julius for the whole weekend?
For some reason I don’t understand, Mama’s worried about our relationship with Daddy’s family. Sure, Grandpa Jay and Granny Marge are cool, but there aren’t many people my age, and I get bored around the rest of them. It’s like all they do is talk about jobs and houses and who has what.
“Hey, Brett, can you give me a hand with something?” Daddy’s standing in the doorway grinning at me, looking like he’s got something up his sleeve.
“What?”
He turns and motions for me to follow him. “Come on. You’ll see.”
I put down the book I’ve been hiding behind and slide into my sneakers. I’ve started for the door before I decide to tie my shoelaces because Mama will fuss at me if she sees me walking around with the laces flopping around. If it were up to me, I’d take the laces out because it’s such a hassle to tie and untie them every single time I put them on and take them off. But I don’t want her accusing me of being lazy.
The back door slams, letting me know Daddy went out to the backyard. So I head in that direction. When I get there, I see him standing beside a big wooden box without a top, a bunch of metal poles, and some wheels.
“Well?” He holds out his hand. “What do you think?”
I walk around the pile of stuff and try to figure out what he’s doing with all this junk. “What is it?”
“It’s a boxcar. At least it will be when we finish with it. I thought you and I could build it together.” He’s rubbing his hands together, looking, as Mama calls it, pleased as punch.
