Getting Lucky

by Carolyn Brown

  "But, but…" Deborah kept saying.

  "Is there another little girl with a white streak living here?" Luke asked.

  "That's Lizzy. She and Chuck is my bestest friends ever and Chuck gets to live with Lizzy now so he can come to my house and play with us," Annie said.

  "Your mother was in a panic. She saw that little girl from behind and saw that white streak. She thought you'd been kidnapped," Luke said.

  "It happens," Julie said. She wasn't ready to have this conversation with her parents, not by a long shot. She'd planned on telling them on a need-to-know basis, not hit them with the whole thing the moment she saw them. "How was the hotel? Did the other guests complain about Dad's snoring?"

  Deborah laughed nervously. "Not yet. I really was scared, Julie. My heart almost stopped. Who would have ever thought there was another child with a streak in her hair in a town this small?"

  "Strange, ain't it?" Julie said.

  "Ain't? And you a schoolteacher?" Luke teased.

  "Yes, I am, but I'm also a businesswoman. My five acres has a garden and an orchard. Come over to Molly's and see my wares. Sometime this afternoon we'll drive out to the place so you can see it." Julie looped her arm through her mother's and led the way to the little store painted bright yellow on the east side of the square.

  Bells jingled when they walked through the door and Mamie came out from behind the counter with a big smile on her face. In keeping with the holiday spirit, she wore a red and white furry Santa hat with a big jingle bell on the point.

  The store was small but organized. Shelves lined three walls and offered gifts and gadgets arranged neatly with Julie's canned goods interspersed between everything. The cash register sat on an antique glass-front counter that displayed costume jewelry, watches, and other small items.

  "You must be Julie's mother. She looks exactly like you except for the red hair," Mamie said.

  "And this is my Poppa and he's my momma's daddy and did you see Lizzy this morning? I want them to meet her," Annie said.

  "Yes, I did and she'll be back real soon," Mamie said.

  "Momma, this is Mamie, and Mamie, this is my mother, Deborah, and my father, Luke," Julie made the introductions. She dreaded telling her parents about Lizzy, but even more so about Griffin. Explaining Graham would be easier by far. It was a flash in the pan. Griffin was much, much more complicated. More like a slow-burning ember in a fireplace.

  Hands were shook. Pleasantries exchanged.

  Mamie raised an eyebrow but Julie pretended she didn't notice. She was more nervous than a Yankee in a Rebel outhouse during the war.

  Deborah picked up one item and then another. "I love your store. It's exactly what I want someday when Luke retires. Just a little something to keep us from sitting down and going to rot," she said.

  "Want to buy it?" Mamie asked.

  "Is it for sale?"

  "Could be."

  Deborah looked at the store with a critical eye, moving from floor to ceiling, thinking about how she would add a few boughs of greenery here and red velvet bows over there. "We might talk about it in a couple of years when Luke retires."

  "There's a stairway in the supply room. Goes up to a three-room apartment. We haven't used it in years. Never in my lifetime, but story has it that my grandmother and grandfather lived up there when they first married and this was Granny Molly's sewing shop," Mamie said.

  Julie was glad her mother had gotten away from the shock of seeing another child with a white streak in her hair. She held up a jar of dilled beans.

  "Momma, take a look at my new business," she said.

  Griffin pushed open the door and joined the conver sation. "Her squash relish brought in a hefty amount at the fireman's auction last week."

  Julie was exceptionally pretty that day in her jeans and light jacket, but then she'd look good in anything—or nothing. He rather liked the nothing idea better than the anything idea and let his eyes undress her.

  She felt his gaze and turned to find his eyes all dreamy and sexy like they'd been that night at the Dairy Queen. Right there in front of her parents, instead of a place where she could return the favor. She looked away at the same time she heard her mother gasp.

  When Deborah sucked in air, Luke looked up and did the same. Annie wiggled until her grandfather set her down.

  Mamie grinned and for that Julie could have shot her—BFF's didn't grin when the other BFF was in boiling hot water.

  Annie grabbed Lizzy's hand and pulled her toward Deborah and Luke. "Lizzy, come and see my Grammy and Poppa. You come on too, Chuck."

  Both children took a step forward away from Griffin. Chuck had a new pair of wire-rimmed glasses that fit his face much better than the old black plastic frames had and was wearing starched jeans, a clean T-shirt, and a good warm coat. Lizzy was in jeans with jewel trim on the pockets and pink sneakers. She carried her coat because, according to her, it wasn't cold enough to wear it.

  Tension filled the room as each person tried to process the scenario.

  "Did someone toot?" Lizzy asked.

  "Lizzy!" Griffin said.

  "Well, everyone had a funny look on their face like this." She sucked air noisily into her nostrils and held her breath. "And I wondered if someone tooted."

  Annie cocked her head to one side, the exact same way that Griffin did at that very moment. "I don't smell anything. I think it's that candle Mamie is burning. It smells funny."

  Chuck sniffed the air. "Smells good to me. Like gingerbread."

  Mamie saved the day when she starting introducing everyone. "Griffin, honey, meet Julie's mom and dad. They drove over from Jefferson for the festival. This is Deborah and Luke Donavan and this is Griffin Luckadeau."

  Luke extended his hand. "Pleased to meet you."

  Luke was still speechless but determined he'd give the man the benefit of the doubt. Griffin's handshake was firm. He was clean and a cowboy. It could be the Lord's strange way of working, bringing his daughter together with the sperm donor that produced his grandchild.

  "And that imp is Lizzy, Griffin's daughter, and the boy is Chuck Chester. He lives with Griffin and Lizzy," Mamie continued.

  Luke jerked his hand back. What in the devil was a married man doing donating to a sperm bank?

  "I can see where Julie gets her looks, Mrs. Donavan. She's the image of you except for that red hair," Griffin said in a slow drawl. It was evident that Julie's parents had already put two and two together and come up with the magic answer—the wrong one, but he didn't owe anyone an explanation about anything. That was Julie's job.

  "Got that from her great-grandmother Donavan, my husband's grandmother," Deborah said nervously. She didn't wring her hands but she sure wanted to. Griffin Luckadeau had fathered those two little girls and yet he had to be married to have a child. Julie had a lot of explaining to do and it wouldn't wait until later.

  Luke raised an eyebrow. "Julie?"

  Mamie poked her in the ribs and whispered barely loud enough that she could hear, "Time to face the music."

  Julie poked back. "Some BFF you are."

  "Hey kids, how about I take you outside to the vendors and let you look around?" Griffin offered. He'd give her that much but nothing more. She could do the explaining. He would have to do the same when his parents found out about Annie.

  "Good boy versus evil twin," Mamie whispered again.

  "But—" Deborah started.

  "Ten minutes, Griffin. Then I'll watch them the rest of the day," Julie said. She was nervous as a worm in hot ashes but not too jittery to notice how striking he looked that day or how good he smelled after a fresh morning shave.

  "Hey, that's a deal I can't refuse. Marita is watching a stand for her daughter, who is up from San Antonio, and the kids were going to have to stay with her a while. I'm sure they'd rather be with Annie. Be back in ten minutes. So much for me not getting involved in all this hoorah, huh? How about a snow cone, kids?"

  That set up squeals of joy. They joined hand
s and tried to get out of the store all at the same time, with Griffin right behind them.

  Mamie raised a curtain and motioned them through it. "I've got a pot of coffee and some funnel cakes in the back room. Go on back there and help yourself."

  Julie sank into one of four folding chairs set up around a card table. She picked up a healthy portion of funnel cake and put it into her mouth. Manners said she couldn't talk with food in her mouth and she needed a few minutes to collect her thoughts. Did she really have to tell it all right now, or could part of it be sidestepped?

  "Okay, confession time," she finally said when she couldn't escape it any longer.

  "Let me go first," Luke said in a hoarse voice. "I love you unconditionally and figured you'd gotten tired of trying to get pregnant and went to a sperm bank without telling Derrick. I know what he said about adultery, but I never believed it."

  Deborah narrowed her eyes at Julie. "Why would a married man donate to a sperm bank? There's no doubt that man is Annie's biological father. Did you know it when you moved here? And where does that little red haired boy come into the picture? He looks more like he could belong to you than your own child."

  Julie slowly shook her head. "First, I didn't go to a sperm bank. I was divorced, although it wasn't final. Remember the weekend Sally and I went to Dallas, the week before Derrick came begging me to take him back?"

  "No, I don't," Luke said.

  "We went. I did a stupid thing and slept with a man I only met that night and got pregnant. I didn't know it when I went back with Derrick. I did not commit adultery. We were as good as divorced."

  "You slept with a married man?" Deborah asked.

  "No, I slept with Griffin's twin brother, Graham. And I had no idea the Luckadeaus were from Saint Jo or I would have treated this place like it had the plague. There's more." She told them that Graham had died in Iraq and about how the townspeople already knew about Graham being Annie's father.

  "Out of the frying pan right into the fire," Deborah said.

  "How does Griffin feel about this all?" Luke asked.

  "We started out on the wrong foot but we're pretty decent friends now. It won't ever be anything more, so don't worry. We are good with both girls and with Chuck and the kids are inseparable. Lizzy loves me. Says she wants to be white trash just like me."

  Luke's face flushed red. "Why would she say such a thing?"

  "Griffin and I had this big fight and that's what he called me. Made me mad at first, but then, what would you call me if you were in his shoes? I slept with his brother. I moved to Saint Jo to a house that looks like crap right now. I haven't had time to paint and the first time he came to the place when Lizzy ran away, I screamed at him like a fishwife."

  "What a mess," Deborah said.

  "You got it," Julie said.

  "What do you plan to do now?"

  "Live right here. I own five acres. I like what I'm doing. I'm making a small profit on my business. Haven't had to touch Aunt Flossie's money yet except, of course, to buy the place, but the balance is still there. The canning business and my paycheck are supporting me and Annie for food and bills so far, and I'm even saving money."

  "But everyone probably thinks that you…" Deborah couldn't force the words from her mouth.

  "Are an adulteress? I'm sure some of them do, but I'm not running. We tried that and it didn't work. We'll just sit our ground and take our blows," Julie said.

  The bell rang at the front of the store and Mamie asked the customer if she could help. Her friend's tone had a lilt to it that Julie recognized immediately as Mamie's flirting voice. Maybe California had arrived to buy out the stock.

  "I hope so," a masculine voice said. "My mother and father were supposed to meet my sister, Julie Donavan, in this store. Have they been in? Do you know them?"

  "Eli!" Julie screeched and shoved back the chair. The curtain waved in her wake as she ran into the store and into his arms. "This is such a wonderful surprise. How did you get here?"

  Eli pushed her back and looked at her for a long minute. "By car, little sister. I might be a preacher but I can't sprout wings like an angel just yet."

  Griffin poked his head in the door and turned two dark-haired tornadoes and one red-haired one loose. "They are all yours." He stopped midway in the process of shutting the door and stared at the man holding both of Julie's hands. Jealousy shot through him in a white hot flash. Had her ex-husband returned to beg for another chance?

  "My brother, Eli," Julie explained. "This is Griffin Luckadeau. And this is Lizzy, Annie's new best friend. And this little red-haired fellow is Chuck, who is their friend, too. And they are all three my students in kindergarten."

  Griffin exhaled slowly and extended his hand.

  Eli was speechless but he shook hands with the man.

  Deborah and Luke chose that minute to fan through the curtain.

  "Shocking, isn't it?" Luke said.

  "I'm off to take care of business," Griffin said. "Pick them up at what time?" No need for him to stick around and he did have business. A cup of coffee was calling to him from the King's Hotel lobby.

  "When the day is finished. If they get too tired, I'll beg Mom and Dad for the key to their hotel room and put them down for a nap," Julie said.

  Eli cocked his head to one side and then the other as he studied the little girls who were almost twins.

  "Uncle Eli, you look funny," Annie said.

  Eli regained enough composure to scoop up the child talking, hoping he was truly hugging his niece. "That's because you didn't hug me yet."

  "Now hug Lizzy and Chuck," Annie said.

  Eli stooped down on one knee and opened his arms. Annie pushed her friends toward him.

  "It's all right, he's my uncle and he's a preacher," Annie announced.

  Julie felt like a one-legged chicken at a coyote conven tion and sure didn't want to explain it all a second time in less than half an hour. She looked to Mamie for help, only to find her grinning like she'd just won the lottery.

  "He's gorgeous," Mamie mouthed.

  "Who?" Julie asked.

  Mamie pointed discreetly toward Eli.

  "Eli?" Julie checked out her brother. He hadn't changed. Same brown hair, light brown eyes with a few yellow flecks, round baby face like her father's, heavy beard that had been shaved very recently, under six feet tall and just slightly overweight.

  Eli, gorgeous?

  Mamie needed to put her contacts in or lay off the funnel cakes. All that sugar was affecting her vision for sure.

  Lizzy and Chuck both hugged Eli and then the chil dren ran to look out the front window to make sure they weren't missing a single minute of the festival.

  "Julie?" Eli stood up.

  "I'd like you to meet my new friend, Mamie, who owns this store," Julie said.

  Eli nodded toward Mamie. "Pleasure, ma'am."

  "Okay, short version or long?" Julie said.

  "I don't care which one but you'd better start talkin'. My brain is working overtime," he said.

  Mamie giggled.

  "For that little giggle, you get to tell him. I'm taking the kids for a stroll over to the hotel where I'll meet you in half an hour," Julie said to Mamie.

  Mamie tugged at Eli's arm. "Come on back here and have a seat. I'll tell you how all this came about while you have some funnel cake and coffee."

  Eli was glad to sit down. His head was spinning out of control and he couldn't grasp a single thought, much less make sense of it.

  "We're going to follow Julie," Luke said. "Come on over to the King's Hotel when Mamie gets through and get ready for a shock."

  "I've already got the shock. Now I want the story," Eli answered.

  *********

  Julie's heart had settled down to a slow steady beat by the time she walked across the square to the hotel. The lobby was reminiscent of a hotel right out of the last century with an ornate pool table sitting atop an off white and mauve rug that looked as though it had been designed after a pat
chwork quilt. The hardwood floors were as shiny as a freshly polished mirror. The bar had a brass footrest that had seen lots of cowboy boots. The walls were papered in stripes, and tables for four offered seating space. Comfortable leather chairs and a sofa begged for people to get cozy and have a visit.

  It was in one of those chairs that Julie found Griffin. Damn his good-old-boy heart and all that surrounded it if he hadn't just lied to her. Said he had a meeting and rushed off to leave her holding the bag. Lizzy ran over to him and crawled up in his knee. Chuck claimed the other one, and Annie put her hand on his shoulder. Julie sank down into the chair next to him.