Frank’s sister, who weighed at least four hundred pounds, stood with hands on her expansive hips. “Like my brother said, we ain’t going nowhere. Where ya’ll get off coming in here trying to take over anyway? Ya’ll wasn’t nothing to my brother. He didn’t even allow ya’ll to step foot in this house!”
C.J. and Gina came to stand beside Jaci, fierce looks on their faces. Nita was sitting with her head down, silently crying.
“Oooh!” Jaci said. “So you know about that, huh? Well, if you know that, you also know why he didn’t want us here. And for anyone here who might not know, let me tell you. It was after Frank had beaten this woman so bad he’d almost killed her. We came up here, gave him a taste of his own medicine, and told him he’d better not ever lay a hand on her again. And to answer your question, we’re here at Nita’s request.”
Anita’s friend Lynn came to stand beside them. “That’s right! And if I had had some help, I woulda been over here whipping his butt long before they got here. It didn’t make no kinda sense the way he treated this girl.”
Opposing sides took position, with the cousins and Lynn on one side of the room and Frank’s family on the other. There was no telling what would have happened at that point if Frank Jr. hadn’t spoken.
“Grand Momma,” he said, appealing to his grandmother, whom he considered the most reasonable. “I’m sure you understand what my aunts are saying. My mother has a lot facing her right now, and I’m asking ya’ll to leave so she can get herself together.”
Frank’s mother stood up and gathered her purse. “Come on ya’ll, let’s go.” She was ashamed. Ashamed of her son and herself. She had known for years that Frank had abused Anita, but failed to speak up. Maybe if she had intervened and tried to help her son deal with whatever demons were driving him, he might be alive today. She couldn’t let her family pick up where Frank had left off in mistreating his wife. She had fought the same battle for years with her own husband, but the Lord had finally answered her prayers when he repented and stopped beating her. She looked around, expecting her family to follow her to the door. When they didn’t move, she yelled, “I said, let’s go! Frank was Nita’s husband. And they’re right. This is Nita’s and them children’s house. They got a right to their privacy right now.” She walked determinedly through the door, then called over her shoulder, “Nita, I’ll call you later so you can let me know how I can help you with the arrangements.” The others reluctantly followed her out.
The cousins promptly went into action. They made lists of everyone they needed to call, and everything they needed to do to make the funeral arrangements, split them up, and went to work. To make room for relatives who would insist on staying at the house, they decided that Gina would stay at the house with Nita, but Jaci and C.J. would get rooms and spend their nights at a nearby hotel.
Jason
It was Monday and Jason was having trouble keeping his mind on work matters. Jaci called to let him know where she was staying and how everything was going. It sounded like things were under control, but he still had concerns about Jaci being in the same city with Maxie, and without him. The men’s conference was set to take place from Thursday to Saturday. He was scheduled to do several workshops Thursday and Friday. Jaci didn’t know yet when the services would be, but said the family was pushing for Saturday. He hoped it would be Friday so Jaci could come home. But if it was Saturday, he planned to leave Friday evening or early Saturday morning. In the meantime, he was worried about Maxie. Jason didn’t trust men like Maxie, who operated like a dog and had a “dog with a bone” mentality. If the dog didn’t want the bone, he buried it just to keep another dog from enjoying it, or on the off-chance that he might want to dig it up for himself at a later time. Maxie had been sniffing and digging around Jaci like the dog he was, hoping to get lucky. This made Jason very nervous. His male instincts told him Maxie was as low-down and conniving as ever, and he didn’t want him anywhere near Jaci.
Maxie
Maxie hung up the phone, excitedly rubbing his hands together in satisfaction. He had managed to get the information he needed. He knew from George the name of the funeral home handling the arrangements for the late Dr. Frank Stanhope, and it didn’t take much effort for him to get the home address of the dead guy from a silly woman who worked at the funeral home. According to George, Jacetta would be at that house with her cousin.
Maxie spent the remainder of the day preparing. He went to the barbershop for a fresh trim and even got his shoes shined and bought a new shirt. He washed and cleaned his car, sure that before the day was over, Jacetta would be in it with him. Later, he smiled confidently as he found his way to the fashionable neighborhood.
Jaci
As soon as she knew, Jaci called Randi and Jason to let them know Frank’s funeral was set for Saturday morning at eleven. Randi wouldn’t be able to attend the services, but Jason had already made tentative plans to leave late Friday or early Saturday. Jaci decided she would drive back to Houston with Jason, while C.J. would stay on in Dallas with Nita for a few days.
Surprisingly, their cousins Buddy and Dusty showed up at Nita’s house Thursday evening. Big Ben, unable to leave his high school coaching duties, called to express condolences. As the cousins sat around the kitchen table Thursday night, reminiscing and laughing over their antics as children in Riverwood, the doorbell rang. One of Nita’s boys came to the kitchen door. “Aunt Jaci, there’s some man here to see you.” Jaci frowned in annoyance. There was no one she wanted to see badly enough to interrupt her time with her cousins.
“Did he say who he was, baby?” Jaci asked him.
“No. He just asked if you were here and when I told him yes, he asked to see you.”
Jaci left the kitchen with a questioning look. When she saw who it was, aggravation and anger consumed her. “Maxie! What in the world are you doing here? You’re not welcome, so you need to leave right now.”
Maxie salivated as his gaze boldly traveled over the gorgeous woman who stood before him. Her beautiful eyes glinted angrily as the kissable lips tightened in irritation. It was going to be fun kissing those lips into submission, he thought. Shoulder-length hair framed her heart-shaped face in loose waves, and the midthigh shorts she wore showed off big shapely legs and voluptuous curves. He wondered again how he had let her get away from him. He was convinced his life would have been different if he’d had sense enough to hold on to her. The woman had everything . . . looks, intelligence, a good job, and a beautiful home. He could be enjoying all of that right now. When she told him she was pregnant, he should have been the one insisting they get married as soon as he could dump his wife and find a preacher. Darnit! He had been foolish.
Maxie pushed past Jaci and arrogantly walked into the sitting room, where he took a seat. “Jacetta, uh, Jaci,” he said with a smile. “I went through a lot of trouble to find out where you were staying.” He sounded as if he had actually done her a favor. “The least you can do is speak to me. I came over here because I need to talk to you. You’ve made it impossible for that to happen in Houston, so since you’re in my town, I’m making it my business to talk to you. Is your watchdog here?” He chuckled as he looked around nervously.
Jaci looked at him contemptuously. “If you mean my fiancé, no. He’s not here right now. But don’t think you won’t still get your butt tossed out of here. I suggest you leave now, while you still have a chance.”
Maxie grinned and looked at her searchingly. “I can’t get over what a beautiful and desirable woman the mother of my daughter is. Just how serious are you about marrying that joker? I’m asking because I think you’re making a mistake. You should back off and think about it. And I want you to consider giving us another chance. We’re older, more mature now. We already have something between us to build on, meaning our daughter and grandchildren. And I think our daughter would love for us to get back together.” He turned on his special smile—proven to melt even the hardest woman.
Jaci let out a loud laugh and
sat down across from Maxie. “You must be out of your doggone mind! Just what gives you the idea that I would do something that foolish? And you can leave my daughter out of this conversation, so that eliminates your ‘something between us to build on.’ You effectively removed that possibility when you disappeared after I told you I was expecting your child and begged for your help. As far as I’m concerned, you gave up all rights to my daughter and grandchildren.” She looked at him like he was something nasty.
Maxie cringed at her words and the look she leveled on him. Then, he noticed that several people had entered the room and were standing around them. They too looked at him like he was something they would wipe off the bottom of their shoes. A sense of desperation suddenly filled him. He needed to get her away from these people so he could bring her around to his way of thinking. “Jacetta, let’s go for a drive, maybe a drink or something, so we can talk privately. And my mother wants me to bring you by to see her.”
Jaci looked at him for a long time before she finally spoke. “What gives you the idea that I would go anywhere with you?” she asked coldly. “But you know what, Maxie, I’m glad I have this opportunity to say some things to you. For years I struggled with how I let myself be taken in by you. It took a while, but I finally came up with the answer. It’s not a complicated answer and now that I’ve talked to you and observed you over the last several months, I wonder why it took so long. It’s obvious. I had to be either stupid or stone crazy.” She laughed and relaxed in her chair.
“Since you showed up again, I’ve searched for something . . . anything . . . in you, to justify my stupidity or at least explain why I let you make a mess of my life, but all I’ve seen are signs of you growing physically older. There’s nothing to indicate any mental, emotional, or spiritual growth. You’re still the same low-life jackass and the most pitiful excuse for a man it’s been my displeasure to know.”
Jaci continued. “I feel sorry for you, Maxie. You’re so pathetic that you actually came over here tonight convinced you had something to say that I’d want to hear. What’s wrong? Have you finally discovered, after a lifetime pursuing a good time, that you’ve gone the wrong way and bypassed the meaningful and valuable things in life? Do you find yourself at a dead end with nowhere else to go?”
Maxie reeled as though Jaci had delivered a physical punch. Her words echoed what had recently been drumming through his mind. He fought the same urge he’d given in to years ago and refused to run as fast as he could. He realized she was still talking.
“A whole lot of people have failed you, Maxie. It’s a real shame that no one was able to instill some modicum of decency and wisdom that would have helped you understand that one day, you would be at this point in your life. You could have had the love of at least one good woman, but you didn’t have the sense to accept it. The only good thing you’ve accomplished in this world was planting a seed that resulted in my beautiful daughter.”
Maxie felt anger growing at the way she was talking to him. “Now wait a minute! You don’t have any right to talk to me like that. When I met you, you were nothing but a dumb little country hic—”
Maxie’s words were interrupted when Buddy, a much larger man, grabbed him by the collar of his new expensive shirt and pulled him up from the chair he was sitting in. “I’d be real careful if I were you. I hear you’ve already gotten one good whipping being disrespectful to this woman, and to tell you the truth, we’re all looking for an excuse to give you another one.” He pushed Maxie back down in the chair roughly and stepped back, rubbing his hands against his stylish trousers as though to wipe them clean.
“You through with this scum, Cuz?” Buddy asked.
Jaci shook her head. “No. I need to finish what I was saying before we throw him out.”
Maxie jumped back up. “I’m leaving. I don’t have to stay here and take this crap.”
Dusty, wanting to get in on the action, pushed him back down so hard the chair almost tipped over. “My cousin has some more to say to you. Since you presented your ignorant butt over here without being asked, you don’t leave until we say you leave. Now sit down!”
Jaci struggled not to laugh at the expression on Maxie’s face. “You’ve been given a second chance by the grace of God. You could have the love of your daughter and grandchildren. But are you grateful? No. Are you doing everything possible to gain their love? No. The only thing important to you is the chase and the conquest of women. I’m just another challenge—one you have to triumph over again. That’s all this is about. Whatever I thought I saw in you was never there. But I was in love with that delusion. Did you cherish that love? No. You balled my love up like a used Kleenex and threw it back in my face. Now, you have the audacity to stroll in here uninvited, expecting me to be the same stupid idiot I was then. I don’t think so! This time you’re the crazy one.”
Maxie dropped his head, unable to look at her. “You see, Maxie, I’m abundantly blessed. I have a beautiful daughter and two healthy grandchildren, for which I am grateful, and a wonderful man who loves and appreciates me. The only thing I can offer you now is forgiveness and Jesus Christ. God’s been good enough to bring you through some health problems, but are you thankful? No. While you still have time, I encourage you to grow up and find your way to a good church where Jesus is exalted and the Word of God is taught. I forgive you for everything, Maxie, because I have to. But hear this well . . . there’s absolutely nothing you can do for me but get out, and don’t ever come near me again.”
Maxie left the house and walked quickly to his car. Feelings of déjà vu reverberated in his mind. Another encounter with Jacetta had left him reeling with humiliation and other undefined feelings. He got into his car and sat there for a long time, replaying her coldly spoken words in his mind. For some reason he felt like crying. But naw! He shook his head in denial. That wasn’t happening. He started the car and drove slowly down the street.
For reasons Maxie didn’t quite comprehend, he attended the funeral on Saturday. He needed to see Jacetta again—needed to hold on to the last flicker of hope that she would see him and smile at him with the same loving expression he had seen her give to others. Although the large church was crowded, from his seat in the balcony, he searched until he finally spotted her. However, she was with the Gilmore guy, who had a protective arm around her, and the other two men who were at the house Thursday night. If she saw him, she looked right through him as though he wasn’t there. He watched her circumspectly, trying to memorize her beautiful face, before walking slowly to his car. Maybe he would call Randi and his other children. Maybe he could ask his mother about a good church.
Jaci
The following Saturday, Jaci wanted nothing more than to sleep as late as she could before getting started on her long to-do list.
But she reluctantly agreed to meet a coworker for breakfast at the local New Orleans Poboy. The place was popular on any day, but especially on the weekend.
Albert Michaels was a whiner, and some days she could take him, others she couldn’t. He was not only a coworker, he also happened to be from Riverwood. Perhaps that explained why she often acquiesced whenever he begged to talk to her about his woman problems.
After they settled into a booth with their food, Albert started right in with, “I don’t know what to do Jaci. I love Wanda, but I think I might be too slow for her. She likes the club scene and takes off to Vegas or somewhere to gamble every chance she gets. And you know me, my money’s too hard to come by to throw it away like that. And my clubbing days are way behind me.”
“Well, like I’ve told you before, Al, I’m not the one to be giving advice, but have you tried to talk to her? Maybe that’s what you need to do, sit her down and have a serious conversation about what she wants out of life. Or better yet, tell her what you want. Do you know what you want? You have to be clear on that. Maybe you all are incompatible.”
“I’ve tried, but . . . you know how hard it is for me to put what I really feel into words. I can�
��t seem to get my point across to her.”
The two had their heads bent over large platters of pancakes and bacon. They were unaware that two men who had just come in were now staring at them from across the room.
J.P.
Ron awakened J.P. with a phone call and badgered him into going to breakfast. He would rather have slept in, but got up, took a quick shower, dressed in some comfortable jeans and a sweat shirt, and waited for Ron in the driveway in front of his house.
“I just want you to know, you’re buying . . . waking me up this early on a Saturday morning. And the only reason I’m going is because I can really chow down on some of those big pancakes.”
“Hey, man, don’t get in here with all that yak. I need to talk to you. I got a little situation going with this girl, and well . . .”
J.P. looked at Ron like he had lost his mind. “What’s wrong with you, Ron? What girl are you in trouble with now? Man, when are you going to get it through that thick skull of yours that all you need is one woman—just the right woman. You getting too old for the kind of lifestyle you leading.”
“I told you, I don’t want to hear all that. I don’t need lecturing, I just need you to listen and tell me what to do.”
J.P. released a long tortured breath. “I knew it! I should have stayed in bed.”
They reached the restaurant and continued the conversation while they stood in line to get their food, and were still talking as they looked around for an empty booth. As usual, the place was packed.
Seasons Page 29