Gladys appeared looking slightly askew but holding up frosty-pawed Morning by the scruff of his neck. “Victory is mine!”
It was another several minutes before anyone could explain to Jessica what on earth was going on. Throughout the entire evening’s play, rounds of laughter broke out as one or another of them reviewed the whole incident. The ladies ate every bit of bridge mix and polished off a bag of Oreo Cookies Nellie Ruth had stashed in her cabinet. Gladys went on to win first place and most buncos. The woman was on an unstoppable roll.
The only person who smiled more than Gladys that evening was Dorothy. Every time she looked at Katie she just beamed. Jacob told her about their upcoming date only because he knew she’d somehow sniff it out anyway. Dorothy didn’t mention it to Katie, but it was obvious to Katie she knew.
Dearest Dorothy,
What do you think about my mom and your son (that sounds SO weird) going on a date (Egads! My MOM on a DATE!) tomorrow night? Although mom didn’t call it that. She said they were just going “out.” HA!
Joshmeister
Dear Joshmeister,
I think it sounds grand. Do you think we should wait up for them? HA!
Outtamyway
Dearest Dorothy,
Don’t freak me out. She *better* be home before midnight or I’ll have to ask you to ground your son!
Joshmeister
Dear Joshmeister,
You worry too much. ;>) But do you realize if they ever got married that would make you my grandson?”
Outtamyway, whose imagination is running wild and WAY ahead of itself.
Dear Wild One,
YIKES! It’s not that I wouldn’t like to be your grandson, but this is just a first DATE. And if I EVER hear my mom or your son mention ANYTHING about the FIRE PIT, I’m TAKING ACTION!
Joshmeister, who you bet your BIPPY is worried! No wonder me and Shelby make mom nervous!
Katie felt like a spinning top. The mall opening was exactly three weeks away. Her phone rang off the hook. She was writing all the time: press releases, so many checks to so many people it occasionally made her dizzy, a feature article for BackRoads Illinois that included detailed information about the town as well as the mall, thank-you notes, work orders and reminders for Edward Showalter, who was suddenly a complete airhead. What a time for that! But at least her harried schedule kept her from fretting about her date with Jacob tonight. He phoned to tell her he’d made reservations to dine at The Driscoll, if that was okay with her, which it certainly was, and purchased tickets for a play at the junior college. Josh teased her mercilessly when he noticed she had two outfits laid out on her bed. He also e-mailed Jacob about his mom’s midnight curfew. Although he was joking, then again, maybe he wasn’t.
As it turns out, he needn’t have worried. Aside from the drive to Hethrow, which suddenly felt awkward now that they were on a date, once they settled into dinner—and my, didn’t he look charming in that suit!—they both seemed to relax. They had plenty to talk about so conversation came easy. The play was wonderful, funny and poignant, which gave them fresh things to discuss on the way home. Although he asked her if she’d like to go for a nightcap, she declined. “Thanks, but I’ve had a long week with more long weeks to come. Plus, I’ve got a teen son at home who’s watching my every move. I need to set a good example.”
“Well, at least this first time,” he said, his voice sounding unusually low and manly, which made her heart skip a beat. When he drove up the lane, Katie suddenly felt like a teenager again, thinking about a goodnight kiss. She recalled how he’d caught her off guard under the mistletoe during the Christmas party and how she’d told him, as she quickly scooted away, that she thought mistletoe was hokey. As much as she didn’t want him to try to kiss her tonight, at the same time she wondered if he was a good kisser and was embarrassed to find herself thinking such a thing, especially when she noticed her son watching out the kitchen window as they pulled up to the house.
Once again, she needn’t have worried. He walked around and opened her car door, same as he’d done all night. When she stood up she caught a whiff of his cologne again. Mm. He walked her to the door, asked if he could come in and say hello to Josh, who appeared uncomfortable, then told them both goodnight. After Jacob departed, Josh stared as his mom.
“What?”
“Did you have a good time?”
“Yes. It was nice.”
“Are you going out again?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you want to?”
“I haven’t thought about it.”
“Did he kiss you?”
“Joshua! That is a rather rude and personal question.”
“He DID!”
“No, he did not—even though it’s really none of your business. If you’re done with your inquisition, I’m going to bed. I’m working tomorrow, as is the whole crew. You’re working at Jessica’s tomorrow, too, aren’t you?”
“Yes. More slave labor.”
She smiled at him. “You know, I’m proud of you.”
He reared his head back, as though he’d been slapped. “For what?”
“For caring. For not doing nearly as much whining during your grounding as I thought you might. For doing such a good job at Jessica’s. She brags on you, you know.” She kissed him on the cheek and went up the stairs.
If Jacob asked his mom out again, Josh hoped she said yes. He was obviously good for her attitude.
29
Tuesday. April Fool’s Day. Non-election day in Partonville. Rain. Spring in full bloom. A crazed work day for Edward Showalter since Partonville Pleasantries would open in a week and a half, and tenants were moving in.
Up the stairs, down the stairs. Walkie-talkie squawking all the time. We need you here. We need you there. Edward Showalter! Where ARE you? He’d been run ragged and yet, all he could think about was getting himself over to Nellie Ruth’s because tonight was the night. He would explode—literally, his head would blow off his neck and hit the atrium skylights—if he didn’t just get it over with. He’d so wanted to talk to his best friend Johnny Mathis about this first, ask about protocol and finesse. But what if Nellie Ruth. . . . No, he simply would not allow himself to consider that possibility.
He arrived home at 7:30 and whipped through a shower. His hands were shaking so badly he couldn’t keep control of the soap and had to pick it up off the tub floor at least three times. He put on the set of clean clothes he’d actually chosen yesterday, a first in his life. He told Kornflake to wish him good luck, hopped in the cammy-van, cranked over the engine, then popped right back out again leaving the van running while he ran back into the house to get the all-important package he’d left on his dresser.
With every step he took up to Nellie Ruth’s door, his legs felt heavier until he wondered if he might not make it and have to use his cell phone to call for help. He was running late, but nothing could be done about that now. His work schedule was what it was, but more importantly, Nellie Ruth McGregor was who she was: the woman he wanted to marry. One more step. One more step.
Nellie Ruth saw his van pull up, then heard him on the stairs. She waited for his familiar knock, knock-knock-knock, knock but it didn’t come. She finally opened the door to find him standing there with his head bowed, looking as if he were praying, which he was.
“ES! Come in!” she said, opening the door and greeting him with a warm kiss on the cheek. She laughed. “Your entrance feels like a reversal of the Hookers meeting!” He looked puzzled. “I didn’t want them to come in when they arrived and they had to ring the doorbell twice. But I couldn’t wait for you to walk through that door and you didn’t even knock!” She chuckled but he still looked puzzled. “Never mind. I’m being silly. I’m glad you’re here. Let me take your coat.”
“No! I mean, I think I’ll keep it on,” he said, fingering the ring box in his jacket pock
et. “Let’s sit down on your couch, okay?” Nellie Ruth thought his behavior odd, but she obliged.
After they were seated she asked him if he’d like anything to eat or drink. Although he’d been plenty hungry when he got off work, his stomach was so topsy-turvy right now he didn’t think he could keep anything down. “No. I’m fine. Just stay here. Next to me. On the couch.”
“I’d love to,” she said, moving closer, resting her head on his shoulder. “But are you okay? You sure you don’t want me to take your coat? You seem . . . well, I bet you’re just tuckered out, aren’t you,” she said, patting his knee.
His knee. He hoped when he got down on it he could get back up again. Tarnation, Edward Showalter! You’re having the dumbest thoughts! I hope your mouth works smarter than your brain when you go to ask her!
“Would you like to watch television?”
“No. I’d like to talk,” he said, unzippering his jacket.
“Good. Me too,” she said, nestling her head further into his chest until she heard his wildly beating heart. “ES! Your heart is racing a mile a minute! Do you feel okay?” She put her hand to his forehead.
“Nellie Ruth,” he said, suddenly dislodging her from her cuddled position and standing up in front of her so fast it unnerved her, “let me tell you how I feel. I feel like a man who is hopelessly in love with the beautiful woman in front of him. I feel like we’re the luckiest people in the world to have found each other at this time of our lives. I thank God I am sober and saved and that I have job security,” he said, getting down on one knee, causing her mouth to fall open and her heart to leap into her throat.
“Nellie Ruth, we’re not young and we’re not getting any younger, but I don’t want to spend another minute of my life without you by my side.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew the black velvet ring box. She watched with disbelief as it quivered before her in his trembling left hand. “Nellie Ruth McGregor,” he said, taking her right hand in his, “I love you. I know this is an awfully fast courtship, but will you become my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold until death do us part? Please?”
“Oh, ES,” she said in barely a whisper. “I can’t believe this. I just don’t know . . . what to think, what to say.” His face looked tortured, but she was having trouble collecting her thoughts to save him—to save both of them—from the terrible silence. “You are the sweetest, dearest, most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said as she raised their locked hands to her face and kissed his thumb. Tears spilled over her lashes and dripped onto their fingers. “Oh, ES!” She let go of his hand and reached out for his tense face, drew it toward her, unabashedly kissed his nose, his closed eyes, each cheek, tasted the saltiness of his tears on her tongue. She took his hand in hers again, leaned her forehead against his and rested it there. Together they sniffled until he began to kiss her face, their tears melting together.
He kissed her lips five delicate times whispering “Please” between each union. “Please, Nellie Ruth. I know I don’t deserve such a saintly woman as yourself, what with my boozin’ and carousing past. But God has given me a second chance and I want to spend the rest of my life proving my worth to you. Please.”
When he referred to her as a saintly woman, Nellie Ruth was overcome with an onslaught of fearful thoughts. Fear that since her father had abused her as a child . . . what if she couldn’t be the wife this beloved man deserved? But God had brought her through that, claimed her as His own. No! I won’t allow fear to ruin the rest of my life, this opportunity!
They were each survivors of life’s hard circumstances, she thought. Two people deeply in love with God and each other. He’d never done anything to cause her distrust. He was a genteel, hard-working, caring human being. How could she say no?
“Yes,” she first whispered. “Yes, Edward Showalter! I say yes!” She all but threw herself on him to give him a hug. Since he was down on one knee, over he toppled, Nellie Ruth going right over with him. The ring box fell out of his hand and skittered toward the coffee table which Midnight was hiding beneath. When the two of them saw the kitty staring at the box, they broke out laughing until they grabbed each other and desperately engaged in a deep, long, passionate kiss. “ES,” she said, pulling herself away, even though she didn’t want to, “I think we better get up off this floor right now!” Although she was blushing, she no longer felt worried about her ability to respond to this man who was to become her husband—and soon, she hoped!
“I believe you are exactly right,” he said, helping them both to their feet after grabbing the ring box. “Now sit yourself down here on this couch so I can give you an engagement present. Guess what it is?” he said, a breathless mischief and excitement in his voice.
“Another kitten.” She eyed the box with merry eyes. “A teensy, tiny one.”
“No.” He held the box in front of her and slowly opened the lid to reveal a delicate gold band with the most beautiful round sparkling diamond she’d ever seen.
“Oh, ES! It’s . . . perfect! ” She sobbed. Just sobbed.
He took it out of the box and just like in the movies, placed it on her left hand ring finger. It slipped over her knuckle like silk on silk. “I know it’s a small diamond, Nellie Ruth, but I also know you, and I figured you wouldn’t want some big showy thing.”
“You figured exactly right,” she said, staring at the ring through her tears, flickering it in front of their faces, giving him a kiss, sobbing and repeating the cycle again and again. “I just cannot believe it. After all these years, me, sixty-three-year-old Nellie Ruth McGregor, getting married . God is so unbelievably good.” Again she cried as he once again cradled her in his arms, his own tears dampening the top of her head. For a long while they didn’t speak, remaining locked in their silent prayers.
“Would you like to call anyone?” he asked.
“Did Johnny and Mary know you were going to ask me?”
“Nobody knew but God, although I know the two of them will just bust a gut of happiness when they hear!”
“I’d like for us to tell them together. How about we give them a call right now? Do you think it’s too late?”
ES looked at his watch. 8:30. “Johnny would never forgive me if I thought it was too late to tell him about this!”
“One more kiss,” she said, “and then we’ll dial.”
30
Chaos reigned the night before the community sneak-preview grand opening. Twice this week, Sheldon Prescott, owner of Alotta Chocolatta, burned batches of fudge while “breaking in” his new commercial-grade equipment (he’d previously only cooked on the stovetop in his kitchen, a little fact he hadn’t quite mentioned to Katie) and due to the atrium, the entire mall still smelled bad all day Wednesday. So much for the enticing, make-you-want-to-stay-and-shop-a-little-longer fragrance of the coco bean! Between exhaust fans, the new furnace’s fan, fumigating fans Smackman “borrowed” from someone somewhere and a break in the weather that allowed store owners to open their windows, the “atmospheric scent,” as the exuberant Edward Showalter referred to it, was almost gone.
Although most store move-ins were synchronized so as not to tie up the elevator all day by any one store owner, it seemed everyone suddenly needed last-minute boxes moved in, up and over there. Horns blew in the shipping dock as delivery vans blocked pickup trucks. Coupled with the excitement of watching dreams come to life, tempers flared (so much for love your neighbor) as tired store owners trained sales clerks, rearranged displays and made hysterical phone calls asking “Where is it?” and ranting “You promised me it would be here by now!” Although Katie would have loved to have held a pre-pre grand opening just for mall owners and employees to become familiar with each other’s wares and services, it was clear they’d all be working down to the wire just to get their own businesses in shape on time.
When the boxes of mall directories arrived a week ago, Katie had put Jos
h and Earl to work applying labels for the residential mailing that had just gone out. It was the perfect task for Earl, he and Josh having learned to work well together through their labors at the Lamp Post. Josh looked forward to his time with Earl. Although Earl didn’t say much, Josh told Shelby there was something inspiring about a quiet man doing a task, which she thought sounded very mature and caused her to forget about the Fire Pit incident. Katie told May Belle she’d discovered the perfect bulk-mailer assistant in Earl and assured her she’d be employing him part-time in the future, which caused May Belle to cry happy tears when she told Dorothy about it.
Since the store owners weren’t going to have time to do their own browsing, Katie decided to give them each a short-stack supply of directories, not only to make them available to customers, but to pick up and read themselves should they find a spare moment or two. Of course the Press gave the mall opening wonderful coverage. Now that Sharon no longer had a missing person to track or an election to cover, she channeled all her energy into mall articles, including shots of the banners, interviews with the owners, stories on the rehab project itself and a picture of Katie behind her desk—which Katie hated.
Yes, the advertising bases were covered. Now, if they could all just pull themselves together before tomorrow!
Katie raved about the hallway display cases. They were her best publicity ploy ever. She told Jacob she even surprised herself with her own cleverness, but he said he doubted it—which caught her up short until she realized he was pulling her leg. His dry sense of humor was something she was becoming more accustomed to, but every once in awhile he still yanked her chain with it, which amused him no end. In the three weeks since their first official date, they’d only had time to go out to dinner once more, although she and Josh dined at Dorothy’s one night, which Dorothy said didn’t count since, well, “You’d hardly call it a date when you have a mother and a son as chaperones.”
Dearest Dorothy, If Not Now, When? Page 24