“No, it’s not like that at all. If I had to write it out, it might say that I would love to have a true friend who’d trust me enough to put her wedding in my hands,” he said.
“Are you sure it don’t say that you’re going to throw a big wedding to have an excuse for the town to see that you don’t live in a haunted house?” she asked.
“Yep, that’s it.” He grinned. “Now let’s look at this book and decide exactly what else we want for this shindig.”
No matter what it was called, he was getting to do the first thing ever for his great-granddaughter, and it felt damn fine.
He opened it to the first page. “White tablecloths?”
“How about light purple with lilac bouquets in the middle? Nothing big—maybe in Mason jars?” she said.
He wrote that down. “Mama used to put her lilac bouquets in Mason jars. I like that idea. Now for the food. You sure you want a waffle brunch?”
She nodded.
“With fried chicken, sausage patties, bacon and ham, and all kinds of fancy syrup plus whipped honey butter, and then we’ll need the juices, coffee, sweet tea, and milk.” He kept writing without looking at her. “If you think of anything else, just tell me and we’ll add it in.”
Just like that decisions were being made. Whoever said money talked sure knew what they were saying.
“Is this kind of what you’d like the driveway to look like?” He pointed to a gorgeous wedding that was probably held by royalty. Yards and yards of chiffon and illusion were draped everywhere, and they must’ve stripped every red rosebush in the whole world to find that many blooms. “Only not with red, right?”
“Purple,” she said. “As in lilacs, hydrangea.” She pointed to the pictures as she named several varieties. “And instead of scattering rose petals, I’ve always thought it would be neat to have lilac petals.”
He sighed and made more notes. “My mama would have loved this, Emmy Jo, but don’t use purple for my sake. This is your wedding. We all know Tandy loves red.”
“I’m not doing it to spare your feelings,” she said, pretending not to notice his line for now. “Look at those pictures. I’ve been making this book for three years. Your mama and I would have gotten along very well, Seth. Sometimes I feel like I knew her in another lifetime and that we were close.”
“I think you would have,” he agreed. “So purple and white all tangled up together. What about your bouquet?”
“That is for Logan to take care of. So I’ve already given him a picture of what I want. It’ll have lilacs, purple calla lilies, and white baby’s breath scattered in it. I’m supposed to take care of his boutonnière,” she said. “It will have a calla lily with a little bit of fluffy stuff around it.”
She imagined Seth serving as her escort. She had a grandfather, a privilege to be sure, since she’d never had a male role model in her life, and it made her want to sing and dance around like a little girl.
He turned a page. “Are you wearing pearls like this?”
She shrugged. “Granny has a string that I want to wear. And she might let me tie her mother’s wedding ring into my bouquet for good luck. You’ll have to find a shiny penny to put into my shoe for good luck.”
“You want one from the year you were born or one from this year?” Seth asked without looking up from his notes. “Or should I get a real sixpence and then we could have it made into a necklace for you later? They quit issuing them more than thirty years ago, but I bet I can find one.”
“Oh. My. Gosh!” she exclaimed. “You’d do that?”
Was this what it felt like to have a father or even a grandfather? If so, she hoped that Seth lived to be a hundred so that her children could grow up with him in their lives.
“It’s not a big deal. The bank probably has a few.” He smiled.
“I’d love a pence and a necklace,” she said.
By noon he had a page full of notes and she had a headache. Could she really, truly let him do this for her? They ate and he excused himself by saying he was going to watch one of his movies. She had an hour and a half to work on her story or to go through the wedding book and make any changes to the plans. She raced upstairs and called Diana first to spill all the details.
“Well?” she said when she finished.
“Do you realize that you just went from a hundred people, tops, to maybe a thousand?” Diana asked.
“I wanted to do my wedding on my own. Tell me what to do,” Emmy Jo said.
“You don’t argue with Mama Fate.” Diana laughed. “It’s exactly what you wanted and couldn’t ever afford. A wedding with the whole town invited and a gorgeous place to have it. You have to do this. Don’t you even think of turning him down. Besides, like he said, you’ve helped him come out of being a recluse.”
“Now I’m getting jitters. I have to tell Granny,” Emmy Jo said.
“Is this the sassy, brassy friend I’ve had my whole life? The one that wouldn’t back down from a Texas rattlesnake?”
Emmy Jo smiled. “Granny is meaner than a snake, and I really want her to be at the wedding. But I’m not sure even the angels and Jesus could talk her into coming to Seth’s house.”
“She’ll bitch and moan, but she wouldn’t miss your wedding for the world. After all, you are breaking a curse,” Diana said. “You have to call Logan. You think it’s going to be hard to convince Tandy to go to Seth’s place, think of how hard it’ll be to talk Jesse into it.”
“I’ve been so hung up on the Tandy issue, I hadn’t even put that together. Holy crap!” Emmy Jo whispered.
“You got that right—since only God is going to know how mad he gets when Logan tells him.”
“Amen.” Emmy Jo sighed.
She hit the “End” button and called Logan, talked even faster than she had with Diana, and then waited for his response.
“Great! That’s another step toward the wedding. Oh, man, that means I have to tell my grandpa.” He groaned loudly.
“I don’t envy you that job at all. Make sure he’s sittin’ down, because his blood pressure is going to raise the roof,” she said.
“I’ll do it, but you could invite me to dinner on Sunday as a reward for doing a hard job.”
“Yes,” she said. “That would be great. Dinner is at noon, so sneak out of church a few minutes early.”
“Are you serious?” Logan asked.
“I am very serious. If he’s going to deal with the whole town, then one extra person for dumplings on Sunday shouldn’t be a problem. Do you think you can get Jesse up to this house for our wedding? Or even your folks, for that matter?”
“Hey, if you can get Tandy there, then I’ll do my part. There’s always duct tape and rope if any of them get testy.”
“Come on, Logan, get serious,” she said. “I’m worried. It wouldn’t be fair if your folks weren’t here. I didn’t even think of that when I agreed to this.”
“All a wedding needs is a bride, a groom, and a preacher,” he said. “And that’s as serious as I can get, darlin’.”
“I love you,” she told him.
“That’s what we take to the wedding—a whole heart full of love. I will see you Sunday.”
“Lookin’ forward to it,” she said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Logan had been in the garage once before, but he’d been too nervous to pay much attention to the vehicles. On Sunday he really got a look at them. He was careful not to drool on the old pickup truck or to leave fingerprints on the vintage convertible. He jumped away from the car when he heard a noise and turned to find what he’d thought was a storage door opening to an elevator. Emmy Jo stepped out looking like a picture in a pale-blue dress that hugged her tiny waist and skimmed her knees. He forgot all about the vehicles as he quickly crossed the garage floor to hug her.
“I was just lookin’ at these vehicles and about to climb up the stairs. I didn’t know there was an elevator,” he said. “You are gorgeous.”
“You clean up pretty good you
rself.” Her eyes started at the toes of his shined cowboy boots and traveled up starched and creased jeans to his plaid shirt. Then she rolled up on her toes and brushed a kiss across his lips. “Seth is waiting and dinner is on the table.” She took his hand and led him into the elevator.
“And how did he take the news of me coming to dinner?”
“He didn’t fire me or threaten to shoot you.” She grinned as she pushed the button to take them to the first floor.
He wasn’t expecting Seth to be right in front of the doors when they slid open, but there he was, looking much taller than he did from a distance in the cemetery or sitting in the office. Logan stuck out a hand. “Thank you for inviting me to Sunday dinner.”
Seth’s shake was firm. “Emmy Jo has the food on the table. You can say grace.”
Logan seated Emmy Jo first and then circled around the long table to sit at the only other place setting, which was directly across from her and to Seth’s left. He bowed his head and said a quick grace.
“I like a short prayer,” Seth said.
“I learned by example.” Logan smiled.
“Jesse says short prayers?” Seth asked.
“No, sir. He prays forever. Being thankful doesn’t have to mean letting a little boy starve plumb to death.”
Seth laughed. “Example of what not to do.”
Emmy Jo pushed back her chair. “I’ll ladle out the dumplings, since this bowl is too hot to pass. Seth, will you hand Logan the basket of hot rolls? Save room for dessert. We have apple pie and ice cream.”
“She’s as fine a cook as she is an assistant,” Seth said. “You are getting a good woman, Logan.”
“Yes, sir, I am, and thank you for letting us have the wedding here.”
“Jesse coming?” Seth asked.
“I hope so,” Logan said. “We’ve asked him to do the service.”
Not that I hold out a bit of hope. He can’t even say Emmy Jo’s name without having steam come out his ears.
Seth turned slightly toward Emmy Jo. “And Tandy?”
“I’m going to talk to her on Tuesday. I don’t want to discuss this on the phone. She might not like it, but she’ll be here,” Emmy Jo said.
And I don’t even want to be within hearing distance when that happens. She’s got a shotgun and a temper.
The dinner table wasn’t as uncomfortable as the tension in the parsonage when they all gathered around the table; still, Logan felt the need to fill in the quietness with conversation. Yet he drew a blank.
“Tell me about the banking business. You like it?” Seth asked.
“I do like it, but I have to admit that it’s not exactly what I thought it would be. With my business degree, it’s one of the things I could get into in this area. I don’t want to live in a big city . . . I’m rambling,” he said.
“No need to be nervous,” Seth said. “Emmy Jo never was.”
“I just bluffed my way through it.” She grinned. “But I was nervous.”
“She did some fine bluffing, then,” Seth said. “What else would you like to get into?”
“I don’t know. Maybe real estate someday or a mortgage company. I hear they do really well. I’m happy where I am and have no problem working there the rest of my life, but it’s something to think about if we have a house full of kids who all are as smart as Emmy Jo and want to go to college,” he answered.
“Well.” Seth nodded slowly. “A man does need to think on those things.”
“Logan, you never told me any of that,” Emmy Jo said.
“It just came to me these last few days when this wedding started getting set in stone. I want us to have a big family.” His eyes met hers across the table. “And I want them to be well provided for.”
“I was thinking,” Seth said, “that maybe Tuesday evening when you get off work you might come up here and the three of us will ride out to the farmhouse together. I’d like to see how the remodeling is coming along, and y’all could look at the place,” Seth said. “Maybe we’ll get the convertible out.”
“I could be here soon as I get off work.” Logan nodded, his eyes never leaving Emmy Jo’s.
“I’d love it if just the three of us could go the first time we see the house,” she said.
There was something special in her smile and her eyes that day. He couldn’t put his finger on it for a while, but finally he realized that it was newfound confidence. She had a grandfather, and it didn’t matter to her if he was a recluse or if he came from a less than stellar background. He was hers, and she was proud of him.
Come on, Tandy, own up to it, and you, too, Seth! I love the look in her eye right now.
“Have I told you today that I love you?” She shifted positions until she was sitting in his lap with her head on his chest that Sunday afternoon in the cemetery. His heartbeat thumped in her ear, matching the speed of hers. Together, they’d overcome all the adversity. Love could conquer anything; she believed that with her whole heart.
“No, but then I’m not sure I’ve said the words today, either. Let’s make a vow to never let a day go by that we don’t tell each other.”
She sighed. “I promise to always tell you. Even when I’m mad at you, I’ll still love you.”
“Me, too.” Logan’s lips met hers.
“What does he talk about when he’s looking at his mother’s grave for a whole hour?” Logan asked. “Why don’t you ever go visit your grandmother Rose’s grave, or even your mother’s?”
“I did a couple of times when I was younger. Granny would take me to her mother’s and then to Rose’s and Crystal’s. I would stand there and look at the tombstones, read the writing on them and want so bad to feel something. Granny cried as she’d put flowers out, but I didn’t. Sometimes I’d even look at the other tombstones just to see if any of them made me sad. Does that make me a bad person?”
“No, it does not.” He hugged her even closer. “It makes you an honest person.”
“Thank you, because I’ve felt guilty about that. And to answer your earlier question about what he’s talking about, whatever it is, it’s like therapy. If it was me, I’d tell her everything that happened that week, ask her advice on problems and maybe remember the good times I’d had with her before she died. Seth is a complicated man, though, so I have no idea what he’s saying to her.”
Logan kissed her on the tip of her nose. “It wasn’t awkward at dinner like I thought it might be. He’s a nice old guy.”
“Yes, he is, letting us have the wedding there when he’s been such a recluse all these years. I can’t get over that he’s suggesting giving us a house rent-free and me a job. Have you thought about any of that?” She wiggled backward so she could look at him.
“It’s a really good opportunity. We can buy furniture if we don’t have to pay rent,” he said.
“And if we do go with the trailer?”
“We will buy a bed. And then we will save up to buy a table for the kitchen and a sofa for the living room.”
She flashed a wide grin. “I’m thinking about one of those big recliners where I can snuggle up next to you while we watch movies in the evenings.”
He wiggled his dark brows. “I had something else in mind to do in the recliner.”
“Then we’d better buy a heavy-duty one.”
Later that day Seth held two butterscotch milk shakes in his hands while Emmy Jo drove to the cabin. He handed them off to her while he maneuvered his way out of the car. It was slow going to the porch and his hip ached, but he made it without the walker, and that made him feel less like a cripple and more like a man. He settled into the rocking chair and she handed him the malt.
“It’s really good,” she said. “Still not as good as vanilla, but it’s a close second.”
He tasted and nodded. “Better than chocolate, but vanilla is still the best. On our birthdays, Mama made vanilla ice cream and whatever flavor cake we wanted. I always asked for lemon.”
“But you like chocolate?” she asked. “
We’re having lemon cupcakes at the wedding and chocolate ones, so you can have both.”
“Well, I will be sure to sample everything,” he said. “And I always chose lemon because Matthew had a birthday the very next week. His favorite was chocolate. So I got both with that choice.” He grinned.
“What did Nora want?” Emmy Jo leaned against a post.
“Blackberry cobbler, and the berries were usually pretty much available at the end of May, but just in case they weren’t ready, Mama made sure to hold back a few jars from her cannin’ to make Nora’s cobbler. We had an old crank freezer, and Mama had to pay for an extra block of ice so we could have the ice cream.”
Emmy Jo cocked her head to one side. “Block of ice?”
“We didn’t have electricity. We had an icebox, not a refrigerator, so in the summertime we had to buy ice.”
“Does it have electricity now?” Emmy Jo asked.
“Yes, I had it wired years ago. It’s not air-conditioned, but I wanted a security system put in, and that required power. Today, we’ll walk through it and make sure everything is in place.” He dreaded the Sundays when he had to do that chore and was glad that Emmy Jo was there. Always, without fail, he visualized his mother lying in a pool of blood and the life ebbing out of her eyes.
“I worked on our story some more,” she said. “It was as if I could feel Mary talking to me when I wrote about her.”
“I like that,” he said. “I had the feeling that Mama was talking to me when I broke up with Rachel.”
“Who’s Rachel? You never mentioned her. Was she the high school sweetheart?”
“No, she was the one that everyone thought ditched me a week before the wedding. The lady from Amarillo that I told you about. By the time the house was built, the wedding was off. People assumed that she broke it off with me because she found out that my mother put a red light on the porch post. I didn’t tell them any different.”
“Why did the wedding get called off?” Emmy Jo asked.
“Bottom line is that we wanted different things. She was the one who wanted the big house, and she didn’t want to get married until it was finished. So I had it built. Mama told me that I was doing it for the wrong reasons.” Seth could well remember arguing with himself about the mansion. “Did you ever hear a song called ‘The Old, Old House’ by George Jones?”
The Lilac Bouquet Page 23