“Ahhhh! You are a good brother. Are you serious?”
“I am. You sure you haven’t heard from her?”
“Not since last night. You two have a fight or something?”
“No, I just thought she might want to go fishing. She might have gone to play poker with Molly and Greta on a last-minute whim. See you at dinner tomorrow,” Rye said. They only had this one last night together so surely she didn’t go to a poker game. Unless she had decided to stay in Terral! His heart raced at that idea. Maybe she had gone to Nocona or Bowie to buy groceries for several weeks.
He hung up and looked at the flashing red light and the number four. He removed a beer from the cooler, popped the tab off the top, and pushed the button. Leaning on the kitchen cabinet, he listened to the first message, which offered him a great deal on a three-day trip to Branson, Missouri. Hotel, two shows a day, and dinner all for one low price.
“Does Austin like music shows?” he asked.
The second message wanted to sell him a time-share condo in Florida.
“What would she look like in a bikini?”
The third was a blank. Nobody talked.
He’d just taken a sip of beer when he heard Austin’s voice telling him she was going back to Tulsa. His throat shut off and he had trouble swallowing. He listened to it all the way through. By the time it finished he was gripping the can so hard that the sides were crushed and beer spewed out the top.
“Damn it all to hell! I thought we had at least one more day before she left.” He threw the beer into the kitchen sink and stomped back to the window. The house across the street not only looked empty, it felt vacated. She’d said she’d be back on Friday but that was almost a week away.
He looked on the dresser where he’d emptied his pockets for his cell phone but it wasn’t there. Then he remembered that the battery was nearly dead and he’d plugged it into the cigarette lighter outlet in the pickup and forgotten about it. He jogged out the back door to his truck and jerked the cords loose.
He listened to her two messages and dialed her cell number the minute they ended. She picked up on the first ring.
“Hi!”
“Where are you?” he asked.
“In traffic on the outskirts of Tulsa. I’ve got that dinner thing with my family tomorrow night but I thought if I got up here early enough I could get my office in order tomorrow and the week would go easier. Did you get my messages?” she asked.
“I did.”
“I’ll be back late Thursday. I made arrangements with my boss to work late whenever I need to and to take three-day weekends all summer so I can be there to do the guys’ payroll and have the weekends in Terral.”
“I see.”
“Are you mad? You sound angry,” she said.
“No, I just wanted to see you before you left. I’m not mad. I’m disappointed. I thought we’d go get a pizza from the Mini-Mart and go fishin’.”
“Well, shit! I’m disappointed too, but I’ll be back Thursday.”
He smiled at her cussing. “You could turn around and come back. You’d be home by midnight and we could forget fishin’ and do something more fun.”
“Ah, man! I’d rather do that anytime as drive in this traffic. Gotta go. It’s too dangerous to talk and drive in this mess. Call you later.”
Chapter 12
Austin’s stomach was growling loudly when she hung up. She’d had a chicken sandwich from the McDonald’s drive-through in Oklahoma City but had only eaten half of it. It was difficult to eat when all she wanted to do was cry.
A tour bus passed her and quickly pulled back in front of her little sports car. It had a picture of a bronc rider on the back in bigger-than-life-full-living color and the words “See Texas” across the side. That brought a picture of Rye to her mind and she sighed.
It was near dark when she pulled into the gated apartment complex where she lived and showed the guard her ID card. She parked her dusty Corvette in the garage, reset the security code when she had lowered the door, and went into the apartment through the back door. The spotless kitchen was decorated with shades of bright yellow against a black marble countertop, charcoal gray tile floor, and stark white cabinets. Four modern chrome and black leather stools were drawn up to a bar separating the dining area from the kitchen. A matching glass-topped table with chrome legs and chairs with black padded seats took center stage in the dining area with the same décor flowing into the living room with its black velvet furniture, misty gray carpet, and bright yellow throw pillows. A brass floor lamp illuminated an original oil of a sunset and the ocean hanging above her sofa.
She carried her suitcase to the bedroom and dropped it beside the king-sized bed that looked like an acre and a half after the twin-sized one she’d been sleeping on in Terral. She checked her answering machine. It looked like blinking lights on a Christmas tree. Holding her breath and hoping to hear Rye’s deep voice, she hit the button and threw herself across the bed.
The first one had been left the day she went to Terral: her mother telling her that she was sorry she’d missed her. It went from there to telemarketers trying to sell her bogus extended warranties on her car, lesser insurance on her house since she owned it (which she did not), to more insurance on her life in case her children needed it for final arrangements, to surveys to see if she was in agreement with all of President Obama’s recent activity. But there was no message from Rye.
“Shit! He doesn’t have my house phone. Just my cell phone.”
She grabbed it but the batteries were dead. “Damn newfangled gadgets anyway,” she grumbled.
She picked up the house phone and dialed his cell number and it went to voice mail.
“I’m in my apartment. Please call me at this number,” and she unknowingly rattled off Verline’s house number in Terral.
She stretched out on the sofa with the phone right next to her. She shut her eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep. She dreamed of watermelon fields, watermelon wine, and Rye. They’d taken a bottle from the cellar and were picking their way through fully ripe watermelons on their way to the river to lie on the banks and watch the moon come up. They were older in her dream. White frosted the temples of Rye’s black hair and her dark tresses were streaked with silver. The happiness she had in the dream vanished when the telephone awoke her two hours later.
“Hello?” she said groggily.
“I figured you’d be up and on the road.” Her mother’s voice wasn’t happy.
She sighed and looked at the clock. It wasn’t quite ten. She wondered what Rye was doing.
“I’m not in Terral. I’m at my apartment. I decided to let the hired help bring in one more crop before I sell the place so they’ll have a job. They have work visas and their families depend on their summer paychecks. So I’ve got all summer to take care of things in Terral. I made an arrangement with Harvey to take Fridays off,” Austin answered flatly.
“Well, damn!”
“I thought you’d be happy that I’m home.”
“I thought it would be over and done with today and you’d be permanently home where you belong.”
Where do I belong? Everything looks so sterile here and so cluttered there. Is there a happy medium somewhere in between the two places?
“Well?” Barbara quipped when Austin didn’t answer.
“Guess I’m not,” Austin said.
Was Rye already asleep or had he gone to his folks’ house to talk to Gemma?
“I’m calling to tell you that your aunts couldn’t get away so we’re having the dinner next week instead of today.”
She could’ve cried. She would have stayed in Terral until after dinner with the O’Donnells if she’d known. She would have had one more day with Rye and worked late on Sunday night to catch up at the office.
“You will be here?” Barbara asked when Austin didn’t answer.
“I’ll be here. I can leave early on Sunday and be back in time for supper. But I’ll be leaving each week as soon as I
get away from work on Thursday. I have to be at the Ryan bank on Fridays for payroll. Greta and Molly expect me at the Ryan drugstore at two for ice cream.”
“I expect by the time you get that crop in you’ll be damn glad to come home permanently. It’s probably a wise decision because you’ll see the contrast between Podunk and living right.”
“Maybe so but then maybe I’ll decide I like Podunk better.”
“I hope not! Have a good week. I’ve made plans for tomorrow or I’d invite you over for lunch. See you in a week for dinner.”
“I’ll be there.” Austin’s heart whined for Rye O’Donnell.
She was in the shower when she heard her cell phone ringing again and hurried out to grab it. Standing there dripping water onto the hardwood floor in her bedroom she answered breathlessly.
“Hey, girl, where are you?” Gemma asked.
“I came back to Tulsa. Didn’t Rye tell you?”
“No, he called and wanted to know if I’d heard from you but he didn’t mention that you’d left. Then I can have your share of shortcake at dinner tomorrow?”
“Sure you can. Did you think about a shop of your own today?”
“I did. I told Rye and he said that he’d even finance it and Momma said she and Daddy would help me get started. There’s an empty building down beside the Chicken Fried Café a couple of miles south of Ringgold. It used to be a little used car place years ago and they used the building for an office. It’s a good size and there’s parking room. Come back and help me decide on colors.”
“I’ll be there on weekends. Probably getting in late Thursday night and coming back about noon on Sunday,” Austin said.
“That is wonderful! Have a good week and we’ll see you next weekend.”
***
Rye turned on the television and surfed through the channels. Nothing, not even the bull riding, kept his attention. He popped the tab on a second beer, carried it out to the front porch, and stared at the empty house across the road. Finally he walked over there and sat down on the porch. Rascal meandered around the end of the house and laid down close enough that Rye could scratch his ears.
“Are you already missing her too?”
Rascal set up a noisy purr.
“I thought I had another day at the very least. Actually, I hoped for a miracle and that she’d stay on forever. I had big things planned.”
Rascal arched his head back.
Stars twinkled in half the sky. The other half was a mass of black clouds rolling in from the southwest. Depending on how big the storm was and how slow or fast it moved, there was a good chance neither he nor Raylen would show off their bronc busting powers the next day. He’d looked forward to a little rivalry between him and Raylen, just to show off for Austin. Now it would be work and not fun, so he didn’t care if it poured down rain all day.
“Let’s call her again.” Rye pulled his phone from his shirt pocket and it went straight to voice mail.
“Why in the devil didn’t I make sure I had her home phone number as well as her cell number? Maybe her cell phone is dead and she’s recharging it? Maybe she turned the ringer off or maybe she’s in the shower. What do you think, Rascal?”
Rascal jumped up in his lap. He scratched him with one hand and tried calling her one more time but got voice mail again telling him to leave a message at the beep. He was so engrossed in her voice that he didn’t realize it was time for him to leave a message. “I was petting Rascal and didn’t realize it was time to talk. This is Rye. I was checking to make sure you made it home all right. Call me when you have time.”
He’d barely finished talking when his cell phone rang.
“Hello,” he said breathlessly.
“What were you doing?” Gemma laughed.
“Nothing. The phone startled me.”
“Hoping it was someone other than your sister?”
“You are nosy.”
“And you thought it was Austin, didn’t you?”
“Did you call for a reason or to tease me?”
“Momma says it’s raining and the weatherman says it’s a slow moving storm coming from out around Amarillo so we won’t be breaking horses tomorrow. We will have dinner and I already talked to Austin so I get her share of the shortcake.”
“Okay. I’ll leave my spurs at home and be there in time for dinner.”
“Aren’t you interested in what she had to say? I called her to see if she was still coming to dinner and to tell her that I’m considering her idea about a beauty shop in this area.”
“I talked to her awhile ago,” he said.
“Good. My battery is about to go and I’m getting those annoying little beeps so we’ll see you for dinner tomorrow.”
***
Austin had been in the shower when both phone calls came in. She was drying her hair when the house phone rang and she raced to the kitchen to grab it on the second ring, hoping to hear Rye’s deep voice on the other end.
“Hello,” she said breathlessly but it wasn’t Rye. It was her mother.
“I’ve got the whole day free tomorrow after all. Let’s do brunch and shop away the afternoon. I hear there’s a sale on women’s suits at Neiman’s. I’ve been looking at a cute little red one that might be half price today.”
“I thought you were going to be busy?”
“Ask me no questions. I’ll tell you no lies. I’ll pick you up at eleven. Dress casual since we’ll be trying on clothes.”
“I’ll be ready.”
She found his messages on her cell when she went back to the bedroom and called him. He answered on the first ring.
“I need your house phone number. You never did give it to me,” he said. “You’ve always called me on your cell phone or Verline’s phone.”
“I left it on your answering machine.”
“You left Granny’s number on my answering machine.”
She giggled. “I’m sorry, Rye. Here it is.” She rattled it off and wondered if it was an omen. Had she begun to think of Terral as home and automatically rattled off the phone there?
He wrote it down and memorized the numbers as she said them. “We’ve been playing phone tag for over an hour.”
“I miss you,” she blurted out.
That put a smile on his face and lightened the heavy rock lying where his heart was supposed to be. He jumped up from the sofa and danced around the living room pretending the phone was Austin. “Oh, honey, I’ve been lonesome all evening. That house across the road is just as lonesome as I am.”
She felt as if he’d kissed her with his words. “I’m so sorry I didn’t see you before I left. It was tough leaving Terral. I thought I’d be ready to get back to Tulsa. I wasn’t.”
The rock was gone and his heart skipped two full beats.
“Good! I knew you were a farmer the first day you dropped seeds in the ground.”
She yawned. “Can we talk about this more tomorrow? I’m so tired and sleepy tonight that I’m actually weepy.”
“Yes, darlin’, we can. You sleep late and I’ll call in the afternoon.”
“Good night, Rye. I wish I had a good night kiss.”
“So do I. Good night.”
He said the words so softly that she touched her lips to see if they’d been kissed.
***
“Damn!” She exclaimed the next morning when her apartment door shut behind her. She hurriedly unlocked it, ran back into the apartment, and picked up her cell phone. She didn’t intend to miss a single one of Rye’s calls even if she was with her mother all day. She jogged to the car where her mother was waiting.
“Good morning. I’m glad for emergencies,” Barbara said.
“Want to explain what you are talking about?”
“Not really because you are going to have a fit about it, but I suppose this is as good a time as any. I’m seeing a doctor, a surgeon.” She spit it out as if she was telling Austin about the new line of Chevrolets coming out in the fall.
“But…” Austin sput
tered.
“Your father has been dead for years. I’m still young enough I’d like to have a male companion and James is a wonderful man.”
Austin took a deep breath. “Okay, how long have you been seeing him?”
Barbara squirmed in the driver’s seat of her Chevy Tahoe. “Why did you ask that?”
“Just wondered.”
“I started seeing him six months after your father died. I knew you’d be a blister so I didn’t bother to tell you until now. But now that’s out of the way, we’ll go to brunch and do some shopping,” Barbara said and began to talk about how many cars she’d sold that week since her stock was back up.
Austin giggled.
“What’s so funny? Selling cars is what makes my living.”
“You are talking too much which means you are nervous,” Austin answered.
“If I’m talking, then you can’t and I don’t want to hear all that you are thinking about me having a companion all these years and not telling you.”
“I was happy these past weeks in a strange kind of way. I thought I’d be sad after the memorial service and when I had to pack Granny’s things. But it was weird how happy I was. I’m not mad at you. I want you to be as happy as I am.”
You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry. It felt like Verline was in the backseat of the shiny black Tahoe whispering in her ear.
Barbara didn’t comment but changed the subject abruptly. “Your grandparents are finally tired of taking trips. I’m glad since they’re both in their eighties now. I worry when they go to those faraway places that they’ll have a heart attack over there. They were my age when they retired and gave me and your father the business. They were both fifty-two and still young, like I am. If this promotion doesn’t come through for you, I’ve been thinking about retiring in the next five years and giving you the business.”
You want to sell cars or make wine?
Austin turned around and made sure her Granny wasn’t sitting there in her overalls and boots.
“So?” Barbara asked.
“So don’t expect me to make a decision like that on a moment’s notice. I figured you’d run that business until you dropped dead after a record selling day.”
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