Everyone feels like family and I am back in the city that I love.
Chris Noth
I got the best night’s sleep I’d had in ages in Aunt Alva’s guest bedroom. I didn’t even mind the 1970s paintings on the wall or the harvest gold carpeting. And the silk nightgown she loaned me—circa 1968—made me smile. But the room felt just right for me, including the down comforter on the bed. Since she kept the house as cold as a refrigerator, the comforter came in handy. I loved snuggling under the covers when chilly.
When I woke up the following morning, the smell of bacon gave me more than enough reason to get out of bed. I found one of Alva’s robes hanging on the hook at the top of the bedroom door. I donned it and headed to the kitchen, where I found my aunt in a floral dressing gown. She stood at the stove, cooking up a storm.
“Good morning, sunshine.” Alva gestured with her head to the refrigerator. “There’s milk in the icebox.”
Icebox?
“Might as well pull out the butter too. It needs to soften a bit before we can use it. We’re gonna need it for the flapjacks. They’ll be done in a few minutes.”
“Wow, you’re cooking for an army over there.”
This whole breakfast reminded me of another one several weeks ago. I’d sat at Queenie’s table on a random weekday morning, talking about my relationship with Casey.
Casey.
Hmm.
For whatever reason, thinking about him didn’t bring as much pain as it had that day. Maybe my heart really was starting to heal. At any rate, a plate of pancakes smothered in butter and yummy syrup would certainly help.
Our conversation shifted, and Aunt Alva went off on a tangent about how she was a week behind getting her hair done. How we’d transitioned from flapjacks to hair, I could not say.
“Just wanted to make you aware of my schedule, honey bun,” Alva said. “I’ve got my weekly appointment at the hair salon a couple of days from now, on Friday.”
Interesting. Queenie always went to Do or Dye on Fridays to get her hair done. The similarities between the two women grew stranger and stranger.
“Why Friday?” I asked.
Alva gave me a “surely you jest” look. “Silly girl. So it’ll still look fresh for church on Sunday. Wouldn’t want to show up for Sunday service with bed head, you know. Gotta put my best foot—er, curl—forward.” This led to a lengthy conversation about what her schedule looked like the rest of the week. “I come and go from the house quite a bit,” she said. “I might be in my golden years, but I’m still very active. And a good driver too. Those people at the DPS might’ve questioned it last time around, but I proved ’em wrong. Sure did.”
Just like Queenie.
“Now, let’s eat.” She lifted the platter of flapjacks, nearly dropping it. “I’m starving.”
“Me too.”
I’d just taken my seat at the table when my cell phone rang in the living room. I sprinted to find it and answered when I saw my mother’s number. I could tell from the sound of her voice that something was troubling her.
“Mama, you okay?” I asked.
“Well, I suppose I’m all right physically, but if you’re asking about my mental and emotional state, I’ve been better. Things have been rough at the store without you, honey.”
“Ah. I’m sorry, Mom.”
“I don’t mind admitting we’re getting worried about you, Katie Sue.”
“Worried? Why?”
“Well, for one thing, your brothers came home with the strangest story yesterday. Something about some girls they’ve met at a store in Dallas, thanks to you. Didn’t make a lick of sense. Why in the world are the boys meeting girls at some sort of store? Have you been shopping a lot while you’re there?”
“Well, not really. I—”
“I know some girls like to go on shopping sprees when they get their heart broken, but it only leads to ruin in the end. You’ll run up credit card debt and end up in debtors’ prison.”
“Mama, I don’t have any credit cards. And I haven’t been shopping.” Not really.
I didn’t know what to say, but it didn’t really matter anyway, because Mama did all the talking.
“Your brothers insist you’ve been spending time with a ball player. A pro ball player, no less. Now, I know my girl really well. She’s never kept any secrets from me. So I told them it couldn’t possibly be true or she would’ve told me.”
Oh dear.
“Actually, Mama, I have met someone who plays for the Mavericks. Brady James. Have you heard of him? We’ve struck up a friendship.”
“A . . . friendship?” She grew silent.
“He’s very nice. I think you would like him.”
“Well, I must say I’m a little surprised. Your brothers aren’t giving me much information, and I for one am feeling a little left out. I don’t know what in the world you’re up to in Dallas, but Pop and I want you to come home now. He needs your help at the hardware store, and the choir’s just not the same without your voice. I had to give Bessie May the solo in last Sunday’s special, and you know she can’t hold a candle to you when it comes to singing.”
“Mama, that’s not true. She has a lovely voice.” Shaky, but lovely.
“It’s just not the same.” Mama sighed. “Nothing’s the same since you went away.”
“I’ve only been gone three and a half weeks.”
“Seems like three months. I just don’t understand why you need to spend so much time with Lori-Lou. Aren’t those children about to drive you bonkers?”
“Actually, I spent the night with Aunt Alva last night. I’m in her living room now.” I lowered my voice so as not to be heard.
“Aunt Alva?” Now Mama sounded interested. “Seriously?”
“Yes. We had a slumber party.”
“Well, if that doesn’t beat all.” I could almost hear the wheels turning in her head. “Queenie’s liable to have a conniption.”
“Only if she knows, Mama.” So please don’t tell her.
“Well, what in the world are you and Alva doing? Can’t you stay connected through the internet or something? Come back home and send her emails. Ask her to friend you on Facebook. There are plenty of ways to stay connected to people these days without actually having a slumber party. We need you here. Nothing’s the same.”
Hmm. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Mama was a tad bit jealous of my blossoming friendship with Alva. And Lori-Lou.
“I told you, Mama. I’m getting away for a while. Since Casey left, well, I just needed to think things through.” I couldn’t mention the upcoming photo shoot, obviously, but it weighed heavy on my mind. I couldn’t go back to Fairfield for good until the dress was finished and the photo shoot was behind me. Now that Brady knew about my situation, I owed it to him. I would carry through with this, if for no other reason than to make things easier on him.
Mama cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got this figured out, Katie Sue. I know a little something about broken hearts.”
“Huh?”
“I know why you’re staying away so long. It’s a tactic, isn’t it?”
“A tactic?” Okay, now she really had my attention. I took a seat on Alva’s paisley sofa. “What sort of tactic?”
“It’s a ploy to bring Casey back home. Stay away and make him wonder what you’re up to.”
“That makes no sense at all, Mama.”
“Are you thinking that he’ll come back because he’s worried about you being gone? I’m not sure that’s the best strategy.”
“Strategy? You really think I’m doing this to draw attention to myself? To make Casey come looking for me? That’s . . . crazy.”
“I’m clueless, if you want the truth of it.” Mama’s voice shook. “Honestly? I don’t care if we ever see Casey Lawson again.”
“What? Really?”
“Really.” Her voice continued to tremble with emotion. “He can move away to Tulsa and stay there, for all I care. I’d rather see you end up with someone who deserves you, someone who won’t leave you dangling for years on end. Someone who makes you feel the way your father makes me feel.” Her words grew more animated by the moment. “Someone who’ll go the distance with you. Someone who cares about family and sees your potential. That’s the kind of guy I see you with.” She released a long breath. “There. I got it out in the open.”
I half expected her to leap into a sermonette about Levi Nash, but she refrained, thank goodness.
“You know what, Mama? That’s exactly the kind of guy I see for me too.” I rose and paced Alva’s spacious living room, my gaze landing once again on the photograph of Queenie and Alva as young girls. “And you’re right . . . that guy isn’t Casey. Giving me time away in Dallas has put all of that into perspective. I’ve needed to completely step away to see that. You know what I mean?”
“I guess. But you’ve picked a doozy of a place to go. If you knew the story about Queenie and Alva, you’d understand.”
“Oh, I think I’m beginning to understand.” I lowered my voice. “We, um, had a little conversation last night. I’m starting to see what happened . . . from both sides.”
“Did she tell you that she’s the one who broke up the relationship between Reverend Bradford and Queenie?”
“Well, it wasn’t phrased exactly like that, but I sort of figured it out on my own.”
“Alva was behind it. She instigated the whole thing. Flirted with the poor fellow and got him all confused. Totally ruined any chance Queenie had. I don’t think the good reverend was really interested in Alva, but she wouldn’t give up on the idea. You want my opinion?”
I had a feeling Mama was about to give it, regardless of my answer.
“I think Alva didn’t care about Paul Bradford. She just didn’t want him to marry her sister.”
“Why?”
“Because she didn’t think he was good enough for her.”
Whoa. I lowered my voice to a hoarse whisper. “You’re telling me she arranged for Queenie to have a broken heart . . . to somehow protect her?”
“She didn’t want her sister to end up with a man who didn’t deserve her. That’s the long and short of it,” Mama said. “But Queenie went on to meet your grandpa Joe when his family moved into town. They had a whirlwind courtship and—on the heels of Reverend Bradford’s wedding—she decided to marry him. From what I was told, Alva wouldn’t even come to her wedding.”
“No way.”
“It’s true. Bessie May spilled the beans. And it wasn’t much longer before Alva moved away to Dallas.”
And Alva had never married. Sad.
I felt like a real heel talking about the woman behind her back in her own home. Not that I’d brought up the subject, but I needed to put a cap on it before it got out of hand.
“Mama, I really don’t think we should be—”
“The worst part is, she could’ve been surrounded by family all of these years if Queenie had been willing to forgive and forget. I think Alva pulled away to keep the peace. This ridiculous separation has affected the whole family. You can call it whatever you like, but in the end, bitterness has grown up between them, and the devil thrives on bitterness.”
At that very moment, Aunt Alva popped her head in the living room door and gave me a cute little wave. “Yoo-hoo, kiddo! Your pancakes are getting cold. Better come and eat while the eatin’s good! And I haven’t forgotten about those oatmeal raisin cookies. I’ve already got the dough started.”
“Okay, I heard that.” Mama sighed. “She actually sounds pretty chipper.”
“You’re right.” I waved at Aunt Alva and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Go eat your pancakes,” Mama said. “But promise you’ll come back two weeks from Friday for Queenie’s birthday party. She’ll never forgive you if you’re not here.”
“What date is that?”
“The seventeenth.”
Perfect. Two days after the photo shoot. “I’ll be there. Where is it?”
“At Sam’s, of course. The whole family will be there.”
Not the whole family. Alva wouldn’t be there, would she?
Or maybe she would. Maybe I could begin to work on her now, to see if I could talk her into going with me.
I said goodbye to Mama and ended the call. I thought about her words all morning long as I ate my breakfast, then dressed in the same clothes from the day before. In spite of my blossoming friendship with Brady, I still held some bitterness in my heart toward Casey. I didn’t mean to. But in the quiet moments, usually before getting out of bed in the morning, I still seethed on the inside over his decision to leave me behind.
All right, so his decision to leave had forced me to move on.
And yes, being forced to move on had led me to Cosmopolitan Bridal.
And okay, my decision to move forward with the wedding gown had led me to Brady James.
And sure, my heart fluttered whenever he glanced my way.
When I saw it all in perspective, the bitterness faded away. In that very moment.
Brady showed up around eleven in his truck. Alva greeted him with as much enthusiasm as she had the first day she’d met him and offered to feed him a late breakfast. Brady thanked her but declined.
“Sorry, Alva,” he said. “I’ve got to get back to the shop. I’ve left Jasper and Dewey working on Katie’s car.”
“Wait.” I put my hand up. “My brothers are back in Dallas . . . again?”
Brady nodded. “Yeah, Jasper said something about needing to shop for supplies for the store.”
“He did that yesterday.”
“I think maybe he got distracted yesterday and forgot? Anyway, he and Dewey are working on the car. Putting in a new battery. You’ll never believe what Beau is doing.”
“Try me.”
“Last time I saw him, he was working the cash register at the store.”
“Are you serious? We couldn’t get the boy to work at the cash register at the hardware store if we tried all day.”
“Yep. Twiggy was busy with a customer and they needed the help. He stepped right up.”
“Whoa. I think we’re witnessing a real live miracle, folks.”
Brady and I talked about the changes in my brothers all the way back to the bridal shop while we nibbled on some of my aunt’s oatmeal cookies. I also opened up and spilled the whole story of Alva and Queenie. Why I felt so comfortable talking to Brady James, I could not say. But he had great insight, particularly when it came to my grandmother and aunt.
“Time has passed, Katie,” he said. “And hearts change. Some grow harder. Some soften. But God can still mend relationships, even after all this time.”
“Would you pray about that? I’d love to invite Alva to Queenie’s birthday party.”
“When is it?”
“Two weeks from Friday. In Fairfield.”
“I’ll pray, I promise.” He gave me a thoughtful smile. “The way you talk about Fairfield makes it sound so great. One of these days I’ll have to go there myself. Meet Queenie in person.”
“I’d like that.” I found myself smiling as the words came out. “A lot.”
I snuck a peek at him out of the corner of my eye. He gave me a little wink and my heart did that fluttering thing again. Gracious. If this kept up, I’d have to go find a cardiologist.
Right in the middle of my heart palpitations, Brady switched gears, talking about the one thing I’d avoided all morning: his call to his mother.
“I think she was surprised,” Brady said. “But I explained the whole thing and told her that Madge didn’t want you to say anything.”
“We can totally cancel the dress order, Brady. I don’t mind.”
“No, it would break her heart. She loves that design. And she still wants to go through with the photo shoot. She’s just trying to come up with a new angle for Jordan’s article. She said something about calling you the Someday Bride.”
“The Someday Bride?”
“Yes, the bride who’s been dreaming of her big day all her life. The one who plans everything in advance.”
“That would be me.”
“Yep. You and thousands of other women. She thinks it’ll make the article more interesting that the girl who won the dress doesn’t have a fixed date. Or a fixed groom.”
“Or a fixed anything.” I sighed.
“Oh, I don’t know about that. I think you’ve got a fixed attitude. You’re a hopeless romantic.” His convincing smile won me over.
“Well, true. And I guess there are a lot of other hopeless romantics out there,” I said.
“Yep. And they’re not all women either.” A playful smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
Gracious. Was this sweet guy flirting with me, or what?
Before long we were engrossed in a lengthy conversation about the photo shoot.
“Because Mom can’t come back for the shoot, she wants me to go along and represent the bridal shop,” Brady said. “You okay with that?”
“Of course. Sounds like fun.”
“Dahlia will come too. She’ll take care of the dress and make sure it looks great. And I’m sure Madge will be there. We’ll make a party out of it.”
“Dahlia?” My thoughts reeled backwards in time to the conversation I’d overheard in the fitting room, the one where Twiggy said she felt sorry for the poor, pathetic brides who didn’t yet have a groom. “Do . . . do Dahlia and the others know? About my situation, I mean?”
“They do.” He gave me a tender look. “But you won’t be hearing a word about it. Mom made a point of telling them to handle it like the pros they are.”
“Do you think it changes their opinion about me?”
“Not a bit. Now stop fretting, okay?” He started talking about the various photo op places we’d seen at the stockyard. That conversation somehow shifted to goats, then to horses. This provided the perfect segue to talk about my life back in Fairfield, which I did with abandon. Brady seemed to hang on my every word, genuinely interested in what I had to say.
When we arrived back at the bridal shop, I found Dewey and Dahlia in the parking lot working on my car. Now, I’d seen Dahlia at work behind the sewing machine. I’d watched her pin and tuck hems. But I’d never seen her under the hood before. With my brother speaking so enthusiastically about all things mechanical, the girl practically swooned. Go figure.
We joined them, but only for a moment. I could tell from my brother’s crooked smile that he wanted to be left alone with the Swedish beauty. Okay then. I’d give him some space, especially if it meant he would fix my car.
“See now why I left it in his capable hands?” Brady said as we walked toward the store. “I think he’s trying to impress Dahlia.”
“No joke. Well, if he keeps on impressing her, I might just get an oil change and tire rotation out of it, so don’t bother him.”
Brady laughed and opened the door to the shop. True to his word, Beau was behind the counter, working the cash register. He punched a few keys and then spoke to the young woman standing on the other side of the counter. “That will be $695.14, ma’am.” His Texas drawl sounded even thicker today.
“My goodness, with such a handsome fella waiting on me, I’ll happily spend that much and more.” The girl smiled. “Thanks for the recommendation about the shoes to go with my bridesmaid dress. I think they’re a perfect match.”
“Yer welcome, ma’am.” He took her credit card and rang up the transaction, then closed the drawer and handed her a receipt. “Have a great day.”
“Oh, I have already.” She winked.
This didn’t appear to go over well with Twiggy, who approached at just that moment. She glared at the young woman and showed her to the door. Wow. Looked like things were really stirring at the bridal shop today.
Beau looked my way and his cheeks flushed. “Well, hey, Katie. Didn’t see you come in.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I, um, well, I’m helping out.”
“So I see.”
“He’s had a hankerin’ to work in a bridal shop for years.” Jasper’s voice sounded from behind me. “I guess it’s been a secret desire none of us knew about.”
Beau gave him a warning look. Just as quickly, his expression softened. I noticed his gaze shifting to Twiggy, who greeted an incoming customer at the door. “I have secret desires, all right.” He sighed and took a few steps toward us, away from the counter. His next words came out sounding a bit strained. “Houston, we have a problem.”
“What’s the problem, little brother?” Jasper elbowed him in the ribs. “Can’t choose between the satin and crepe for your gown?”
“It’s Mama.”
“Mama’s never been a problem for you, little brother,” I said. “She thinks you hung the moon. You’re her baby.”
“Mama’s always been a problem for him,” Jasper argued. “He just never saw it till now. The apron strings are choking the life out of him.”
“I’m not really saying Mama’s the problem,” Beau said. “I guess I’m the problem because I’ve let her pretty much rule my life. I’m just saying there’s going to be a problem with Mama when she finds out that, well . . .”
“You’ve fallen and you can’t get up?” Jasper gave him a look.
He nodded. “Yeah.” A broad smile lit his boyish face. “And I don’t wanna, either. Get up, I mean.” Another lingering gaze at Twiggy followed. From across the room she turned away from the customer and gave him a little nod.
Jasper whacked Beau on the back. “Don’t you worry about Mama. She wants her boy to be happy. She always has. It’ll be hard to hear that you’ve developed an interest in a girl, but she’ll get over it.”
“She wants me happy, sure, but she also wants me close to home. Now that I . . .” He scratched his head. “I’m just confused.”
“When she meets Twiggy, she’ll love her.” Something occurred to me in that moment. “Hey, I have an idea.” I snapped my fingers. “You guys should invite the girls to Queenie’s birthday party. Seriously. It’s two weeks from Friday, at Sam’s. That’s the perfect opportunity to introduce them in a friendly setting. Everyone will be in a celebratory mood.”
“Take Twiggy to Fairfield?” Beau looked more than a little concerned.
“I’m trying to picture Crystal hanging out at Dairy Queen.” Jasper shook his head. “Nope. Just ain’t happening.”
“Well, how do you know unless you take them there? At the very least, you can introduce them to Mama and Pop. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Kind of like you introduced them to Brady?” Jasper gave me a knowing look. “Like that? I mean, you two are an item, right? I’m not blind.”
“We’re not an item, Jasper, and you’re completely changing the subject.” I swallowed. Hard. “Anyway, I think it’s a good idea.”
“For you to introduce Brady to the folks?”
“No, for you guys to introduce the girls to the folks.”
He shrugged and we ended the conversation, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said. Sooner or later we would all have to cross the great divide between Fairfield and Dallas. Between now and then, however, I’d have to figure out a way to invite Alva to go with me to Queenie’s party. And I might—just might—work up the courage to invite a certain basketball player to join us too.