TEAGAN SHOWED UP just as the sun did. In a car I didn’t recognize.
“What happened to your car?”
“Nothing.”
“This isn’t Jessie’s car.”
“No, it’s not. I rented one.”
“Why?”
“Because that financial guy on television said if you are driving more than six hundred and fifty miles you should rent a car and put the miles on their car instead of your own.”
“Are you allowed to drive this one out of the state? Some of them have rules about that.”
“I checked; we’re good.”
“Okay.”
“And you are on the contract so you can drive.”
“How’d you pull that off? Don’t they need a copy of my driver’s license or something?”
“It’s taken care of. Ready?”
“Sure. Let me grab my stuff and say goodbye to A.J.”
The car is a little bit bigger than either of our cars, which will make for a more comfortable ride, but will make it harder to reach the ice chest. Everything is a balancing act.
“I’ll start driving.” Teagan has a tendency to be a little bit bossy on road trips. It annoys the rest of the family, but it doesn’t bother me. I figure she’s just a little bit insecure, and since she so rarely is, I find it cute. “I figure we can just get on I-75 and head north to I-10, then west until we can’t stand driving anymore.”
“That works. Is this a drive to get there kind of drive or a drive to enjoy getting there kind of drive.”
“We’re on vacation. I want to have fun the whole time, so it is an enjoy getting there kind of drive.”
“Good. Are there outlet malls on the way?”
“That’s a possibility.”
“Texas does everything big; they have to have a huge wedding dress store there.”
“True, but I thought I’d wait for Mom on that.”
“Good plan. It would be bad to have funerals instead of a wedding. She’d kill us both.”
We’d only made it down to the corner before the GPS started in on us. We decided to go the back way to the freeway so that we could stop and get ice.
The tiny little woman who lives in the GPS was not amused.
We stopped and got ice, topped off the tank simply because you never know if a rental car is telling you the truth about these things. It would be bad luck to get out in the middle of nowhere and then find out that the gas tank indicator thingy is broken.
Of course we aren’t going to get out in the middle of nowhere before we buy gas, but if it were broken, we might want to bring the car back and get a different one. That’s the wonderful thing about renting cars for a trip. If there’s a problem, it isn’t your problem.
The gas tank only took about a dollar, which means it was topped off already.
Good omen.
So I bought a lottery ticket.
Told Teagan that if I won a hundred million dollars, I’d pay for her wedding.
She pointed out that the jackpot was only thirteen million.
With an attitude like that, she’ll just have to pay for her own wedding.
Back on the road, we headed north, with Jill, that’s the name of the little tiny woman in the GPS, sounding more and more annoyed. Turns out she thought we should take a bunch of little roads up the coast instead of I-75. Every time we passed an exit, she’d tell us to get off and head for the coast roads. Every time Teagan ignored her, she sounded more annoyed. About ten exits up, we were laughing at the tiny little woman in the GPS. I think we hurt her feelings. I was just sure that at any moment I would hear, “Girls, don’t make me turn this car around; you know I will!”
We made it all the way north to I-10 before she calmed down.
We could have just muted the sound, but that would be rude to poor little tiny Jill, and, besides, what’s the fun in that?
We stopped about a hundred miles our side of Pensacola to get gas. A bunch of military types were there. Teagan talked to a family while she was putting gas in the car. They said that a bunch of the guys just got back and they were all going to Orlando to visit the happiest place on earth.
I’m not sure what all the conversation entailed, but I saw Teagan hand the woman a business card.
That’s part of the reason she’s so good at her job.
She’s a talker.
I can talk to total strangers and get their life story before the cashier has a chance to ring up my purchase, but Teagan actually talks about business and stuff.
I just talk about nothing.
I’m sure that doesn’t surprise anybody.
And it tells you all kinds of stuff about the differences between me and Teagan. And our approaches to life.
Back on the road, it was my turn to drive. We crossed the long bridge to Pensacola. It’s not really a bridge; it’s more like a causeway I guess. It’s just a really long section of road just over the water. It’s pretty. It didn’t even freak me out because it’s really not that high.
The tunnel later is what freaked me out.
I’m not even exactly sure where we were, but I’m sure it was on I-10. You come out of this tunnel, and it’s really bright, and you make this sharp turn, and there are trucks and cars everywhere driving really fast because they know what they’re doing, and I was going kind of slow because I wasn’t sure where I was going. Just the speed limit. It’s not like I was going twelve miles an hour. Some tanker truck guy lay on his horn and about scared me to death.
“Cara, you feeling lucky?”
“If we aren’t dead, I’d say we were very lucky.”
“Why don’t we spend the night in one of the casinos in Mississippi?”
“Sure, if you want to.”
“They usually have cheap rooms at the casinos, they usually have pretty good food that is cheap, and maybe they have a show, or we could play on slot machines or something.”
“Sounds good to me. You want to get on your phone and see what you can see?”
“Sure.”
Minutes later we had reservations at one of the big casinos. Evidently the room was not as cheap as Teagan had envisioned, but she was sure it was a nice and safe place to stay and not all that far off the freeway.
I hate walking into a public place after I’ve been on the road all day. Teagan always looks like she just walked out of a salon. I always look like I just walked out of a wind tunnel. That was testing for hurricanes. Near a convenience store, since I have little bits of chips and chocolate stuck to my shirt.
We got our key, got to our room, took wonderful showers, and got dressed to find food.
The buffet was good.
The ice cream in the buffet was better.
We played video poker for a little while. Teagan won a little. I donated twenty dollars.
We went back to the room. Checked emails and everything with our phones, since Wi-Fi cost eleven ninety-five for the one night we would be there.
We watched a little television and passed out.
Teagan was taking a shower when I woke up in the morning. It was before the sun came up. Not a good sign. I usually have to threaten bodily harm to get Teagan going in the morning on a road trip.
“What’s up?”
“I thought Suzi talked to you.”
“Sorry. Teagan, dear sister of mine, person I adore, what is it that is bothering you?”
“Nothing.”
“Not true.”
“Cara, I said there’s nothing bothering me.”
“I know you better than anyone else in the world knows you. If you don’t want to tell me what is wrong, that’s fine, but we both know that something’s wrong.”
“You’re delusional.”
“Not the first time someone has said that to me, but it doesn’t change anything.”
“Take your shower so we can get going, dingleberry.”
“Did you want to get breakfast? They have something downstairs. The lady in the elevator last night said it was good.”
“Sure, we can do that.”
Something is definitely wrong. Teagan is never dispassionate about food.
“Are you okay?”
“Cara, I told you I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep very well last night.”
“Why don’t I drive? You can take a nap in the car.”
“Sure, that would be good. I forgot my pillow. Can I use yours?”
“Of course, I smooshed it in the backseat in the foot part.”
“Yuck, who knows what feet have been there?”
“Not to worry. Already thought of that. It’s in a garbage bag.”
“Very good.”
“Not really. I just didn’t want to forget to bring garbage bags this time. I always forget, and then either I want to bring something home, or I want to clean out the car.”
“I cannot believe that I actually do a cleaning thing that you don’t do. I’ve out-Cara-ed you. I should do a cartwheel or write this down or something.”
I wanted to smack her, but her gloating seemed to be pulling her out of her mild but quick-onset depression.
She continued. “I take the bags from the grocery store, flatten them out, fold them in fours width ways, then in half length ways, then roll them up, and put a bunch of them in a quart bag. They fit perfectly. Then I stick the quart bag in the pouch behind my seat. I can always reach them, and they are handy for garbage and stuff.”
“When did you start doing that?”
“Jessie thinks I’m a little messy. He says my car is always full of stuff. Just made it easier.”
“You do tend toward clutter, but you’re clean, and that’s what’s important.”
“That’s what I said.”
“What did he say?”
“We’ll get a housecleaning service to come in and de-clutter me a couple of times a month.”
“How do you feel about that? I don’t think I’d want someone else in my house mungin’ around in my stuff.”
“I think it’s a great idea. I can go get myself all glamorized while someone like you, who actually enjoys cleaning and is good at it, takes care of it for me. Best of all worlds.”
“If it works for you, it works. I’m gonna take my shower, and I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”
“I’ll go downstairs and look at the buffet.”
Her heart just wasn’t in it.
Something isn’t right.
We decided to skip the buffet and just get on the road.
Some people think that driving a road like I-10 is boring. I love it. For the most part it is flat, straight, the people are somewhat accommodating — depending on what state you are in — and there aren’t many areas with edges.
If the road has a good shoulder and a guardrail, I can drive anywhere, even in the mountains. As long as I keep my eyes on the road and not on the mountain. If there isn’t a good shoulder or guardrail, forget it.
When I was doing research for the girls, a bunch of people on the Internet were talking about roads all over the place that I am never going to go on. Ever.
Like there is one in Yellowstone where you can only go about twenty-five miles an hour because it is on the side of a mountain and you could just go flipping off the edge. Of course, that’s my fear talking. You don’t hear daily alerts about people flipping over the edge at Yellowstone, but one of the people on the message board I went to said that they were doing some kind of construction in the area and these big trucks were on their brakes the whole time they were on that stretch of the road and by the time they got to the bottom their brakes were smokin’ and they had to pull over.
No thank you.
Those are the kinds of things I think about when I’m driving down a nice, long, flat straight road. It keeps me awake. Wide awake.
Teagan had her seat back, and she had her sunglasses on. And if I didn’t know her so well, I’d think she was asleep. But she wasn’t asleep. She was thinking. That can’t be good.
Throughout the morning she tried to be interested and even attempted conversation every now and then, but mostly we listened to music, or she pretended to be asleep.
I think we were in Louisiana when we crossed this really long bridge or causeway or whatever you call them.
As I have admitted openly since I started driving, I’m spatially and geographically challenged. Teagan can tell you to turn right in a mile and a half. I tell you that I think there is some kind of fast food place on the corner, turn there, if you get to the nail place, make a u-turn. It could be a mile. It could be six. When God invented the GPS, he had me in mind. Or at least people like me.
The causeway was long. Miles and miles. Everything was going rather smoothly. People were being polite, at least for the most part.
The trucks were staying on their side.
That’s one thing that drives me crazy about truck drivers in Florida. When it rains — and in Florida when it rains it can rain several inches in one hour, so you know it comes down so hard that you can’t see anything — the trucks move over into the fast lane and drown you when you are just trying to keep your car floating in the right direction.
There should be a law about drowning your fellow driver, and it should be enforced.
Even before I sounded like a ninety-year-old nun, I felt that way, so it has nothing to do with my current state of crankiness.
On the current road, each direction of traffic has their own bridge thingy, so I wasn’t really paying a lot of attention to the drivers going the other way.
You have to watch that in Florida.
More than once I’ve been driving on my side of the highway, with a huge grassy median between me and the traffic going the other way, when all of a sudden somebody comes flying across.
Once a car rolled about six times and landed right in front of me. If I hadn’t seen them coming, I would have T-boned their already destroyed car.
It would have been really bad.
I know my mom would smack me for thinking about all this while driving a rental car in an area I’m not familiar with. Just asking for the cosmos to teach me a lesson. But I’m not overly worried.
The bridge-causeway-road was beautiful. Teagan was snapping pictures. She was finally starting to brighten up a little.
There were treetops to look at, swampy surroundings to feed the imagination, and a beautiful blue sky. There were even some areas where you could still see damage from a hurricane a while back. I’m sure it devastated the area. Not sure which hurricane got the trees. Maybe it was more than one. I don’t think the term devastatingly beautiful is appropriate, more like beautiful devastation, but it sure was pretty.
Then it dawned on me that there was no traffic going the other way.
I took my foot off the gas, I have no idea why, but it’s a good thing because that extra tenth of a second or whatever it was probably saved us from a whole lot of paperwork at the car rental place.
Turns out that on the other side, a semitruck hit another semitruck, and they both burst into flames.
That caused a mess over on their side, but on our side, people were slamming on brakes and freaking out, and although nobody came in contact, it was close. Really close. When I came to a stop, there were more cars in our lane than there were lanes for our cars. On a two-lane road, there was me, a red sports car, and a minivan full of little kids, squished into the two lanes. In front of us, there were even closer calls. But nobody hit. A minor miracle.
Teagan didn’t even try to pretend to sleep after that.
I took a moment to send up a little thank you prayer for us and one for the people on the other side of the bridge thingy. I really hope they got out before everything blew up.
Everything was calm after that.
I think we were just entering Texas when we saw a sign for alligator dinners. Weird.
I’ve lived in alligator territory my whole life, and I’ve never felt the need to eat one.
We got caught up in traffic in the Houston area. Kept going right through Austin, off the main highway, and onto smaller roads. They were really well maintained, though. Kind of surprised me.
We found a little mom-and-pop hotel on the side of the road. It was stuck in the fifties, as was the owner, a really nice lady who found a way to put “y’all” or “all y’all” in every sentence.
We got our stuff in the room, found a local diner to have dinner, and wandered around the streets of the town for a little while.
But Teagan didn’t seem like she was all that interested, so I suggested we go back to the room.
“I wonder how those people in the trucks are. We should see if we can find anything in the news.”
“I can do that. You sure you want to know? You seemed upset enough without adding to it.”
“I told you, Cara, I’m fine.”
“Okay, I won’t say anything else. Do you know what time the jewelry store opens tomorrow?”
“I have an appointment.”
“What time?”
“At ten.”
“Okay, I lied. I’m going to say something more. For someone going to pick out her wedding ring, you really don’t seem very happy.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Guess I’ve just finally started to relax, and I’m past lethargic all the way to… I’m not even sure what comes after that. It’s been a long few weeks.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Sorry. I know you have had more stuff going on than I have, but between Sinead and Maeve and getting engaged and everything, I’m just kind of wiped out.”
“Getting engaged is a good thing, right? You would think that would energize you.”
She kind of snapped at me. “It will, once I can talk about it. Once I’m not spending all my time and energy trying to keep it all tamped down.”
“Okay, sorry. Listen, I’m going to go for a walk and call A.J. You want anything from the convenience store?”
“Yeah, could you grab me a soda and see if they have any of those cinnamon rolls you like?”
“I can do that. Be back in a few.”
When I got back to the room it was obvious that Teagan had been crying. Not because she was all puffy and snot-nosed like I would be — she doesn’t really do that. It was because she had washed off all her makeup. Teagan usually doesn’t do that until twelve seconds before she goes to sleep. Just in case there is an emergency of monumental proportions, she wouldn’t want to get stuck on the news with a naked face.
I was good.
I kept my mouth shut.
I handed her an ice-cold Pepsi and a semi-warm cinnamon roll. The convenience store had a microwave, and the guy was nice enough to throw the cinnamon rolls in there for me.
We ate in silence while she flipped channels and I tried to find news about the truck accident on my phone.
Mostly because if anyone was hurt, or worse, I wanted to know about it before she caught it on the news. If I could keep it from her, I would. She’s in that kind of mood.
We played cards, but Teagan lost, and it annoyed her.
We played dice, but then Teagan lost, and she got that look on her face that told me to back away quietly, not hold eye contact, and make sure not to turn my back.
I took my shower, got in bed, and read until I fell asleep
Next morning Teagan, I’m not sure how to phrase it other than to say, she was determined. She was determined to get her outfit right. Her hair was perfect. Her makeup never better.
She sat there determinedly eating her breakfast at a little diner that the hotel owner suggested. I’ve never had fluffier scrambled eggs. The 437-year-old cook told me that the secret was water. He added more than most people. A real generous amount. He also cooked his eggs in a saucepan and let them cook for a while before he disturbed them so that the steam from all the water would fluff ‘em out and the curds were a respectable size.
I’m gonna try it as soon as I get home.
Best eggs I’ve ever had.
Teagan and I had switched roles for the morning. I had the scrambled eggs, some bacon, most of Teagan’s ham steak, and some French toast.
Teagan had a cup of tea, three bites of her ham steak, and one triangle of toast.
We got to the jewelry store exactly three minutes early. Thanks to our little tiny GPS woman, we didn’t even get lost.
It’s a tiny little store. I never would have gone in had I been driving by. It’s amazing what you can find on the Internet.
As we pulled up out in front, I decided to smack Teagan around a little. It’s a sister thing. It couldn’t be helped.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”
“God bless it, Cara, there is nothing wrong.”
“Teagan, I know you better than anyone knows you, and I know you’re upset about something. Why don’t you just tell me what it is so I can fix it? And then we can go in and find you the perfect ring, and you and Jessie can start your happily every after.”
“Let’s just go home.”
“What?”
“Cara, I don’t want to do this.”
“What do you mean? We came all this way.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I just don’t want to do this right now.”
“You know what, Teagan? The old Cara would just say fine, turn the car around, and drive home. That’s not what the new Cara is going to do. You don’t have to buy a damn ring if you don’t want it, but at least go inside and see if the rings are the quality you want. If you like them, you can always come back later or just order online.”
“But I can never look the first time again. I just want to go home.”
“No! You dragged me all the way to Texas; we’re gonna look at rings.”
Boy, she was mad.
Slammed the car door.
Almost broke a nail.
Stomped all the way to the door of the jewelry store.
Slammed that door open.
Ran smack into Jessie’s chest.
The look on her face was great.
She went straight to the ugly cry. A very non-Teagan thing to do.
“I thought you didn’t care about where I got the ring.”
“I don’t. I care about you. Cara called and said that maybe it was important for me to be here. Important for you. So I’m here.”
I gave her a hug. “I’ll see you later.”
“You don’t have to go.”
“Yes, I do. You love me, I get that, I love you too, but you don’t look for a wedding ring with your sister. Not even if your sister is perfect in every way, like me.”
“I do love you. Thank you.”
There are few things more beautiful than a bliss-filled Teagan.
Made me smile all the way back to the car and then some.
Teagan was in a much better mood on the way home.
She didn’t volunteer any information about the ring, and I am proud to note that I didn’t ask.
Much. At first.
We stopped at the Tex-Mex she had wanted to try.
Oh. My. God.
You know I am not a food person.
I eat pretty much the same three things no matter where I go, and none of those things were on the menu.
I’m glad that we had a hotel across the parking lot because although I’ve never been drunk. Even when A.J. gave me that really good screwdriver when I messed up my ankle, and I drank the whole screwdriver, and I fell asleep, I was not drunk. At the Tex-Mex place I was a little tipsy. Not really obnoxious or anything. More like I thought everything was funny.
Frozen margaritas.
Never had one before.
I will be having one again.
One was enough. Especially since I’m not a drinker, but I gotta say, that drink actually tasted good.
Then there were tortilla chips, which we added about a ton of extra salt to. Which made me slurp the margarita even more.
Teagan ordered some seafood platter thing, and I had a side of chicken fajita meat. It was so good. Their butter sauce was all foamy, and there were fresh tortillas that were so good.
I ate more than I’ve ever eaten.
I drank more than I ever have before.
We walked back to the hotel, went up to our room, talked for hours and hours about nothing and everything and being an O’Flynn and getting married and having kids and how much we appreciated the way that Mom forced us to like each other.
I slept better than I’ve slept in forever.
I checked in with A.J. again first thing in the morning. His meetings are all going really well. They’ve scheduled several additional meetings, which means there’s a chance I’ll beat him home.
I wonder how Liam is doing with Jordan. Single parenthood is difficult even if you aren’t really single and it’s only for a short time. They haven’t been together all that long. If I get home first, I’ll have to remember to check in with him and see if he needs a break.
After I was up walking around for a while, it dawned on me that I don’t have a headache or anything, which actually makes sense. How dehydrated can your brain get from most of one drink? Isn’t that what causes you to get a headache the morning after you’ve been out drinking? Thinking I’d get a headache from one drink is stupid. Still, that was a lot to drink for me personally, so I’m glad we walked.
While Teagan and I were driving home, I got a few details about the ring from her.
I’m not sure I can describe it as well as she did.
She’s so excited.
She actually drew a sketch. I’m not good at things like that.
Anyway, the stones are yellow, fancy diamonds. I guess there is some kind of rating from the middle of the alphabet to Z and beyond. She went on and on about it, but the only thing I really absorbed is that her yellow will be intense. She is getting three stones. A cushion cut, pear-shaped, and a princess.
Somewhere along the line someone told Jessie that anything less than a carat just won’t do. I don’t get it, but then it isn’t my ring.
When I get married my ring is going to be the thinnest gold band that I can find. I love that look. It looks fragile and strong and classic and modern. All the things a marriage of mine should be. Well, I don’t want my marriage to be fragile; I just want to remember that relationships are fragile and I need to take care of mine.
Back to Teagan’s ring. The engagement part of it will be the cushion cut and the princess cut, and the wedding ring will have the pear-shaped diamond.
First, picture in your mind three different rings. They all have split shafts. That’s where the ring is solid on the palm side of your hand, but then as it wraps around to the part that holds the stone, it splits into two parts so that it can wrap around the stone, which is called a halo. I guess there is micropave, which is tiny little diamonds all set into the band. Then there is pave, which is bigger diamonds. Teagan’s band will have something between the two.
So, now we have three different rings. All have intense yellow diamonds; all are halo set in a pave-type setting.
The stones are big, and they are set at different angles, not straight up and down like so many you see.
Now, slip the cushion cut diamond ring on your finger, and spin it so that the stone is closer to your baby finger than the middle. Then put the pear shaped stone ring on and then the princess.
Imagine that some of the band is gone so that when all is said and done, the cushion stone is closest to your wrist and to the pinky side, and the princess is furthest from your wrist and set at an angle up toward the knuckle of your middle finger with an open space. That’s the engagement ring. Then when Teagan gets married she’ll put on the wedding ring, which is the pear-shaped diamond at an angle that slips the pointed part over the open part of the ring and meshes the whole thing together.
I didn’t do it justice, but even Teagan’s sketch was beautiful.
Oh, and the diamonds they are buying man-made. I got an earful about that whole process. Guess there’s a big difference between man-made and simulant and all manner of other stuff. Man-made is a real diamond in every way; it is just made in a lab. No worker abuse involved.
I’m not even getting involved in all of that. If she’s happy, I’m happy.
And I’ve never seen her happier.
The ring will be ready in about a month.
Oh, you know what? I was looking at the sketch upside down, flip what I told you.
I think.
In a month I’ll see the real thing; then I’ll know for sure.
Teagan is likely to get real cranky in about three weeks.
Mark your calendar.