The Wedding Gift, page 2
“I promise I won’t.” Darla’s phone pinged, and she pulled it out of her purse and read the text. “Will is here and wondering where I am.”
“A woman can’t hide anywhere, can she?” Roxie grumbled. “Since these newfangled phones have come into our lives, we can’t even go to the bathroom and get away from the menfolk. It’s a cryin’ shame, but it’s the gospel truth.”
Darla typed in a quick reply and was starting to slip her phone back into her purse when it pinged again. This time the text was from Andy, her old boyfriend from high school: Be there in ten minutes. Can’t wait to see you.
Her breath caught in her chest at the very idea of both guys being in the same place. She was engaged to Will, and their wedding was just two weeks away. Andy had come back to town just last week. He had called her to say that he still loved her and asked if there was a chance they could get back together.
Roxie checked her reflection in the long mirror on the back of the ladies’ room door and fluffed up her short gray hair that she’d worn in a kinky ’do for the past forty years. “You’re right, Darla. I can’t tell whether I’m wearing a girdle and hose or not, so what’s the difference? Now we’d best get on back out there to the party. Will has sent two of those text things back-to-back. He’s needin’ to see his lady.”
I wish he’d sent both of them, Darla thought. Things would be simpler and less stressful if he had. She wanted to be married to Will. He was kind, funny, and so romantic, but wherever Andy went, there was excitement, and he wanted her to leave Tishomingo and go to Hollywood with him.
* * *
A rush of cool air met Will Jackson when he pushed open the door to the fellowship hall that afternoon. The first person he saw was Claud standing over in a corner with a group of his old domino buddies from down at the senior citizens’ center. Will stopped at the guest book and signed his name, then scanned the room for Darla. When he didn’t see her, he sent a text and got one back that said she would be there in a minute. While he waited, he angled over toward the old guys, who looked different in their khaki slacks and dress shirts. Usually they were wearing bibbed overalls or faded jeans.
“Will!” Claud motioned to him with a flick of his wrist. “Come on over here. We was just makin’ plans to do some fishin’ this week. You should join us Wednesday night. The women will be off takin’ care of weddin’ plans.”
Will shook his head. “Thanks for the invite, but I’ve got a full day on Wednesday. Maybe next time. Where’s Miz Roxie and Darla?”
“Them women is holed up in the ladies’ room, primping I’d guess. They was both lookin’ mighty fine when we got here, but that’s women for you.” Claud poured two cups of punch and handed one to Will. “This would be better with a little shot of vodka in it, but Roxie would have my hide tacked to the smokehouse door if I spiked the punch at a church party.”
“Thank you.” Will took a sip. “Sixty years? What’s your secret?”
“No secret to it. You just keep workin’ at it because”—Claud nodded over to a couple of chairs in the back corner and lowered his voice as he headed toward them—“marriage is hard work, and you should know something very important, son. I like you, and I think you and Darla will be good together. But that marriage license is forever and ever, amen, like Randy Travis sings about. Once you buy it and they register it at the courthouse, you can’t undo it without a divorce.”
Will cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t go lookin’ at me like that.” Claud pursed his lips and adjusted his glasses. “It’s the gospel truth. I was raised up out in the sticks in northern Texas, and we had to buy huntin’ licenses and fishin’ licenses every single year. We didn’t have to get a driver’s license quite as often, but we did have to renew them, or else we’d get a ticket if the police caught us driving without one. So when I went to the courthouse and got a marriage license, I figured it was good for a year or maybe two.”
Will chuckled and sat down in one of the two folding chairs. “How old were you when you and Roxie got married?”
“She was just shy of her seventeenth birthday, but she had finished high school. I had just had my seventeenth birthday, but I quit school before the ninth grade,” Claud said. “My mama was a Bible-thumpin’ woman, and she didn’t believe in divorce. She told all ten of us boys that once we was married, then we weren’t living in her house, and that if we ever got a divorce, not to come home. I was more afraid of that woman than I was of bullets, red-haired women, and even the devil hisself.”
“What happened?” Will asked.
“Roxie was not an easy woman to live with, especially there at first.” Claud sighed. “So, after that first year, I took that marriage license to the Lamar County courthouse in Paris, Texas, and told them I didn’t want to renew the damned thing. I’d had enough of married life. That’s when they told me that I had to get a divorce if I wanted out of the marriage. There I was, betwixt a rock and a hard place. I didn’t want to be married, but I sure didn’t want one of them divorces, not when it would cause shame to fall on my mother. So, son, you be sure spending your life with my granddaughter is what you really want before you put your name on that piece of paper.”
“I’m sure.” Will grinned. “I’m in love with Darla.”
Claud’s brown eyes grew huge behind his glasses. “You be real sure it’s love and not lust. Back in my day, we got married because we weren’t supposed to do that lust stuff until after the hitchin’ took place. Girls who gave in to boys had a bad reputation, and my mama would never have let one of her boys marry a girl like that. So, it was kind of hard to figure out whether you were feelin’ lust or love.”
“Yes, sir, I will remember that.” Will bit his lip to keep from laughing. He was super relieved when he saw Roxie and Darla coming across the floor and started to stand up. “There’s our girls.”
“Yep, and they don’t look a damn bit different than when they went in that bathroom to primp. You remember what I said. Ain’t no use in gettin’ up yet. See them women about to huddle around our women? It’ll take a while for them to shake loose from them.”
Will settled back down in his chair. “What did you do when you found out the marriage license didn’t have an expiration date?”
“I went home, gathered up my fishin’ gear, and went to the Red River. I stayed there until I got tired of eatin’ catfish cooked over an open fire. I decided during those two days that Roxie made good biscuits, and her apple pie was the best in Texas, so maybe I could live with her until death parted us,” Claud answered.
“You went home?” Will asked.
The circle of women stepped away, and Roxie and Darla headed toward them.
“Yep, but what happened on the way home is a story for another day.” Claud stood up, winked over his shoulder at Will, and draped an arm around Roxie’s shoulders. “I see that our other two granddaughters have arrived, and they’ve brought the little urchin great-grands with them.”
“Sure is nice to see the whole family here.” Roxie smiled up at him.
“Yep, it is,” Claud agreed. “You’d think sixty years was a big thing.”
“It is a big thing,” Roxie told him, “and I deserve a medal for living with you all these years.”
“You deserve a medal? What about me?” Claud’s voice went all high and squeaky. “Honey, if it wasn’t for your cookin’, I might have drowned myself in the Red River years ago.”
“Well, damn it.” Roxie’s blue eyes twinkled. “I would have burned the biscuits that whole first year if I’d known that.”
“If I can’t cuss in church, then you can’t either.” Claud guided her through the people toward Marilyn and Sarah, their other granddaughters.
Will thought that Darla was absolutely stunning in her cute little purple dress that barely touched her knees. Her long blonde hair floated down her back like a waterfall, and her clear blue eyes mesmerized him, just like they had from the first day he met her.
“I hope that someday we’ll have a sixty-year anniversary party right here in this same place, and that we can still tease each other like your grandparents do,” Will whispered. “I love you so much, darlin’.”
“Love you too.” Darla really did love Will, but…
There are no buts in real love, the pesky voice in her head scolded.
Chapter 2
I love Will, Darla protested. He is sweet and romantic and never forgets our special days. He’s downright sexy with all that dark hair and green eyes. And more important than all that, he loves me.
As if to prove her thoughts were right, Will hugged her to his side and planted a kiss on her forehead. She looked over his shoulder and saw Andy Miller coming through the door with his grandmother. He could sweet-talk the granny panties right off a holy woman. His blond hair was tied back in a ponytail with a strip of leather, and he wore tight-fitting jeans that stopped at his ankles and a shirt that stretched over his chest like a paint job without a single run. He said he loved her and wanted her to go back to California with him when he left in a week. She wasn’t sure that he loved anyone but himself, so why was she drawn to him like a fly to a cow patty?
Claud called out to her from across the room and pointed to the lady taking photos. “We need you to be in the family picture. Bring Will with you. He’ll be part of the family by the time Roxie picks out which one she wants to hang above the mantel.”
Did Will being in the picture seal the deal on what she should or could do? Would she ever get over the way that Andy made her heart do those crazy quivering things? Will took her hand and led her across the room. Everyone turned to watch the photographer do her work, and Darla felt like she was lying to God right there in the fellowship hall.
Roxie and Claud sat side by side on a fancy high-backed velvet settee with carved wood on the front of the arms. Granny looked like a queen, but something that Kevin, Darla’s father, had said once about his dad came to mind.
“You can take the boy out of the cornfield or the wildlife refuge, but you can’t ever take the cornfield out of the boy. We could put a four-thousand-dollar suit on Dad, and in five minutes, he would look like he had just walked across a plowed field.” Her dad had chuckled when he said it.
“Kevin, you and Gloria stand right behind them,” the photographer said. “Marilyn, you and Derrick go beside your mother, and Sarah, you and Bryan stand beside your father.”
Once they were in place, the lady said, “Now, Will and Darla will sit on the floor in front of Roxie and Claud. Marilyn’s two boys will sit beside Will, then Sarah’s girls can take their place by Darla. That’s perfect. Pretty girls on one side. Handsome boys on the other.”
“Maybe we’ll have a baby to hold in our laps for the next family picture,” Will whispered and slid a sly wink toward Darla.
Darla wasn’t sure she was ready for a baby in only a year. She glanced across the room and locked eyes with Andy, who flashed a brilliant smile. Unless he’d changed drastically over the last seven years, he was way too self-centered to ever want children.
The Marshall girls had always been more alike than just their tall height, their blonde hair and blue eyes. All three of them had been good girls who had been valedictorians of their senior classes in Tishomingo and had graduated from college with honors. Maybe it’s time you broke the mold, Darla’s inner voice whispered, and did something crazy.
I could never just walk off and leave my job and my students like that. She almost shook her head, but remembered that she was sitting for pictures. It would break my daddy’s and mama’s hearts as well as Granny’s. I’m a kindergarten teacher. Boring as that might be, it’s who I am.
The photographer took half a dozen pictures and said, “Now we’ll take individual shots of Roxie and Claud, then of each family, and finally one of Will and Darla. That way our anniversary couple will have new pictures of all of you.”
Roxie would never forgive Darla if she ran away after all this. When Darla dated Andy in high school, Roxie had told her repeatedly that he was going to break her heart, and she had been right.
Darla pasted on her best smile when it was her and Will’s turn to sit on the settee for their pictures and decided that she had to be up-front and honest with her grandmother about how she was feeling.
Tomorrow.
She and Granny would talk about it after Sunday dinner the next day while Gramps had his Sunday afternoon nap. She was still deep in thought when Will stood up and extended a hand. Her heart told her that this was the man she should spend the rest of her life with, but suddenly Andy was right there, not three feet away from them.
“Hello, Will.” Andy stuck out his hand. “I don’t think we’ve ever met. Darla and I graduated together from good old Tish High seven years ago. We were quite the item back then.”
Will shook hands with him. “She told me that she had dated you when y’all were young. Pleased to finally put a face with the name. Have you moved back to Tishomingo? I’m in the real estate business. If you’re in market to buy a place, I could help you out.”
That was Darla’s Will—always ready to help someone out, even her old flame from the past.
“His grandmother told Granny that he’s just here for a visit, so I doubt that he’s interested in staying around these parts.”
“I’ll only be here another week, but it’s good to see you, Darla, and meet you, Will.” Andy flashed one of those brilliant smiles. “We’ll probably run into each other again. Maybe in church tomorrow morning?”
“Probably not,” Will said. “I have to be in Mannsville at nine thirty to show a home. I usually don’t work on Sunday, but it can’t be helped this weekend.”
“Will you be there?” Andy locked eyes with Darla.
“Right beside my granny and the rest of the family. She asked that we all line up with her on her pew at church tomorrow as her anniversary gift from us.” Darla felt like she was babbling, but she didn’t have the power to stop. “We couldn’t disappoint her. After all, sixty years is a long time to be married.”
“My grandmother sits on the pew behind her, so I guess I’ll see you there. Don’t know that I could ever stay with one woman for the rest of my life.” He did a mock shiver. “There’s only one lady I can think of that I could manage to do that with, but she’s already off the market. Hey, you want to come to dinner with the two of us and talk about old times after church?” Andy asked.
“Sorry, we’re all having a family dinner with Granny and Gramps.” Darla could feel the blush starting at her neck and creeping around to her cheeks.
“Maybe another time, then. Be talking to you.” Andy turned and walked away.
Darla’s heart thumped like a bass drum in her ears. She could have strangled Andy and enjoyed watching his pretty blue eyes pop right out of his head, especially when he came off with that comment about one woman for the rest of his life right in front of Will.
Will tucked her arm into his. “That was a little intense. Do I have anything to be worried about? Do you think he was talking about you being that special woman that he could spend the rest of his life with? Do I need to get out the dueling pistols and tell him to meet me at dawn down by the creek?” he teased and shot another of his playful winks her way.
“Maybe so, but only load yours and be sure you shoot him dead. It’ll save a lot of women some broken hearts.” Darla loved Will’s sense of humor and the way they enjoyed teasing each other.
“So he’s that kind of man, is he?” Will grinned.
“No one can change a leopard’s spots.” She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed Will on the lips.
“For another kiss like that, I’ll call off that appointment to show a house in Ravia in thirty minutes.” He grinned.
“Get on out of here.” She gave him a gentle shove. “You’ve got to make money so we can make the mortgage payments on that house we’re buying.”
“Since the family is in for the weekend, are we still on for tomorrow night? Movie in Ardmore and maybe ice cream afterward?” Will asked.
“Of course we are,” she said. “I love my older sisters and my family, but by tomorrow evening, I’ll be ready for some downtime with just the two of us.”
“Pick you up at six.” He gave her a quick hug and walked away.
Just as Will disappeared out the door, Andy started toward Darla. Pretending that she didn’t realize he had zeroed in on her, she turned around and hurried into the ladies’ room. She fell back onto the sofa in the small powder room and put her palms over her eyes.
“Hey, sis, are you all right?” Sarah startled her when she sat down on the end of the sofa beside her.
“Little bit of a headache,” Darla answered. That wasn’t a lie. Being in the same room with her fiancé and her old flame was enough to give any woman a headache.
“It’s just wedding nerves,” Sarah said.
“Did you ever wonder if you were marrying the right person?” Darla asked.
“Sure I did. That’s normal.” Sarah nodded. “Sometimes, when Bryan makes me mad, I still wonder. No one lives with another person twenty-four seven without having disagreements. Doesn’t matter if it’s roommates, sisters, or a married couple. That’s just life.” She patted Darla on the knee. “It’s all normal, honey. Don’t worry.”
“Thanks,” Darla said, but she couldn’t even force a smile.
* * *
The church pew was long but still cramped with thirteen people lined up on it, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. Darla was sitting on the end and hardly heard a word the preacher said that morning, not with Andy Miller sitting right behind her. The weather had gotten hot—Indian summer, the old folks called it—but the sweat rolling down Darla’s neck and into her bra had nothing to do with the temperature outside.
