The Sassy Belles

by Beth Albright

  “Well, lady of the night…how was our detective? Did he hold a ‘discovery of new evidence’ session with you last night?” I smiled at her as I combed my wet hair. Vivi continued with the teasing.

  “And did my attorney in this matter take good notes, or did she reenact the events?”

  “Ha-ha. Very funny.” I laughed.

  “Okay, finish up and get out here and tell me everything.”

  I put my pink silky robe on and rubbed the towel in my hair. I started thinking about what Sonny had said. Was it revenge sex? No, this was makeup sex. Making up for the last twenty years of not making love with him. I finally just did what I wanted to do, not what was expected of me. Not what I was supposed to do. And it felt damn good.

  Vivi and I sat in Meridee’s kitchen talking lovers and marriage and the past. We never got dressed. It was a robes and coffee all day kind of day. Rainy and warm, we never noticed that the day had worn into evening. Meridee and Kitty hadn’t come back from wherever they’d gone for the day. I left my phone on silent so I didn’t hear from Sonny or Harry.

  Along about 4:45, Vivi looked over the kitchen table at me. “You know, where is everybody today? Just too damn quiet for me,” she said. I checked my phone and had two missed calls. One from Harry and one from Wanda Jo. I called the office and Wanda Jo answered.

  “Well, well, are we on vacation?” she asked sarcastically. “I haven’t even heard from you or Mr. Heart all damn day. Those Myrnas are driving me batty and now the Jennings have called three times about their son’s car wreck. He needs to know if he’s gonna be charged for hittin’ Mr. Neighbor’s mule since the mule had escaped to a city street. I told him that mule had no right of way…the street is for cars, but hey, I’m no lawyer.”

  By this time I was laughing to myself on the other end. “I’ll take care of it, Wanda Jo. Don’t worry. Why don’t you go on home for the day?”

  “Okay, that works for me,” she said. “It’s poker night with my sister so I need to straighten up my house. Thanks, I’ll see y’all in the mornin’.”

  I checked the kitchen clock—five o’clock. I could not believe the day was gone. All I knew was Kitty better be getting all of our info from Meridee on those strange letters. If my grandmother was involved with Lewis on some old financial venture, I wanted to know about it and Kitty was the only one who could frame it just right. Those women were two of a kind—smart as whips and suspicious of everyone. But Kitty was more of a nag than Meridee and my money was on her. I’d have my answers tonight.

  I had purposely avoided telling Vivi about the bank information and that they knew Lewis was alive after she reported him missing. We still didn’t know why he’d disappeared or if anything had happened to him since he’d been seen at the bank. If the worst happened and they found he wasn’t alive anymore, it would just be so unfair to get her hopes so high. So I left it alone until we had something certain to tell her.

  I wanted to call Sonny so bad. The flashes of the night before kept popping in and out of my head. My stomach dropped a hundred times, remembering the feeling of Sonny kissing me, touching me, filling me. I had been toying with my cell phone and glancing at the screen all day. I couldn’t stand it anymore.

  “Go ahead.” Vivi broke into my thoughts. “You’ve been looking at that damn screen like it holds the book of secrets. Just do it.”

  “What?” I said, all innocent.

  “Don’t play with me, girlie,” she said with a wink. “Call your lover.”

  I smiled at her and hit Sonny’s name on my cell. The deep baritone answered. “Baby?” he said. “Hey.”

  “I would have never pegged you for the love ’em and leave ’em type,” I teased.

  “Blake, I’m sorry, honey. We got a big break today. I’ve been with Harry all day and haven’t had a moment alone to call you.”

  I could not speak. My breath was stuck in my throat.

  “Blake?” he said. “Blake, baby, everything’s just fine. And, no, next question, I did not tell him about the cavity search last night.”

  I laughed, breaking my stuck-together throat into a heavy relief. “What was the big break today?” I asked. “Do you need to see me?”

  “Oh, I have seen you, and I like what I saw,” he said.

  “Look, big boy, I need to know what happened.”

  “Well, technically, Harry is supposed to talk to you. He was here and is your co-counsel, but due to the extenuating circumstances, I’ll be glad to fill you in…ahem…been there done that….”

  “You just cannot help yourself, can you?” I said with a smile.

  He cleared his throat playfully. I could tell he was happy. He had a lighter tone in his voice. He also sounded like things were finally going well on this case.

  “There were no matches for anyone we tested against that hot-pink lipstick, so the good news is that Vivi is definitely off the hook on that front—not that we imagined it would go any other way. I’m still runnin’ one more test….” A pause.

  “What is it, Sonny? You sound like you’ve got something more to tell me.”

  “Well, thing is, Harry decided that we needed to bring Dallas in for questioning.”

  “What?” I nearly dropped my cell phone. “Let me get this all straight. I catch my skanky ex-stepsister with her breast in the mouth of my two-faced husband, and then I have the best sex of my life with my sexy old high school boyfriend, and then both of them spend the day with the skanky stepsister? Do I have this right? I’m just trying to get this straight.”

  “That’s pretty much it, babe,” he said. “Especially the best sex of your life with your sexy high school boyfriend part. But, Blake, more importantly, we got a break today, and it suggests even more than the evidence from the bank that Lewis is still alive somewhere.”

  “Oh, my God. Vivi!” I yelled. “Get in here! Sonny, do you want us to get dressed and come there?”

  “Let’s get this clear—I never want you dressed. But, yes, I want y’all to come here. We have a lot to discuss.”

  Even in a crisis, Sonny could make me smile…and always make me feel so sexy.

  “Is Harry gonna be there?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  I took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay. Be there in a few.”

  Vivi came running in just as I hung up. “What is it, honey?” she asked. “Did Sonny and Harry fight it out?”

  “Vivi, sit down,” I said. I knew that I had to spill everything about Lewis now. If I didn’t, and she heard it from Harry and Sonny at the station, she’d never forgive me for keeping the news from her. Regardless of what happened to Lewis from here on out, I had to bring her up to date on the fact that we were pretty sure he was alive. “Honey, there’s something serious I need to talk to you about.”

  “What? Oh, my God, Lewis is dead! They found him!” She began to hyperventilate. “Oh, Lord. Oh, no…”

  “Vivi!” I yelled at her. “Snap out of it! No, sweetie, no! They think he’s alive.”

  “Oh, my God, oh, my God!” Now she was hyperventilating over the good news, so I just kept on talking.

  “Yes, they believe they have evidence to show that he’s alive.”

  I walked over to the drawer of plastic sandwich bags as I explained. “Sonny said they had a big break in the case today.” I walked back over to Vivi with a Ziploc. She grabbed it from me and put it over her blue lips and breathed in, like we had done this a hundred times before. (We had.) The bag collapsed. I
helped her hold it in place as I talked.

  “Slow down, honey,” I said. “Now, we gotta go down to the station. Everyone—Harry, Dallas and Sonny—will be there and you are going with me.”

  She breathed deeply into the bag a few more times until her heart rate slowed and she could think again. “Will you be okay?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry about me. There are bigger things going on right now than Harry and Dallas. I am your attorney. I have to be there. Now, c’mon. We need to get dressed.”

  We left the kitchen and hurried to get ready. I went into the bathroom and washed my face and brushed the coffee off my breath. We threw on our clothes. Okay, I thought to myself, here I go. I can do this. I took in a deep breath and turned off the bedroom light. I was fixin’ to be standing with my cheatin’ husband, his lover and my lover, in the same room—all while trying to solve the case of my missing brother-in-law. This should be good.

  20

  Vivi and I left for the station just as dusk was falling into a pink haze over the Warrior River. Vivi had squirmed and bitten her nails to the quick all the way over.

  “I sure hope I don’t have to look at Dallas in the eyes,” she said with her trademark attitude. “I want to pull her hair out. What the hell was Harry thinking? She’s been all around town already—I can’t even imagine what he saw in her.”

  “Her easiness?” I joked. “But, Vivi, I slept with Sonny last night, too,” I said. I was trying to show her I was just as guilty, thinking this would calm her down so we could hear the break in the case and do the hair pulling later.

  “I know,” she said, “but Sonny is a good man and he’s loved you forever. Dallas doesn’t care about Harry—I think she’s just out to get whatever will help her career.”

  “That sounds just like Harry, too, doesn’t it? Two of a kind, maybe?” She was quiet for a moment as we thought about that. Then her thoughts returned to Lewis.

  “Blake, do you think Lewis ran away? I mean, if they think he is alive, why would he leave me like that? I really thought he loved me. I mean, I know Lewis is Lewis but he and I…we…had a thing.”

  “Oh, honey. He does love you. I know there must be a good explanation.”

  “If he’s out there, I’d be so happy, Blake. This baby may get to know her father.”

  “Yeah, but we still need to find him and bring him home,” I said.

  I looked ahead and the station was just in sight. I knew everything was about to change. We needed answers before I could even think of where to sleep tonight. So I looked at Vivi. “You ready?”

  Vivi reached over and squeezed my hand. “Blake, I am ready for anything that lets me know my Lewis is alive. I have to say something before we see these boys. Please don’t take this the wrong way. I am only sayin’ this ’cause you need to hear it before you look at these two men together.”

  Vivi was disarming. I was listening with a warning in the pit of my stomach.

  “Something happened to you last night,” Vivi began.

  “It sure did,” I said with a sly grin.

  “No, really. I mean…Sonny has an effect on you. He brought you back to yourself. I saw it in you all day while we were sittin’ at Meridee’s table. Since you married Harry, little pieces of my Blake are being lost, year after year. You have become who Harry needs you to be. Not who you really are. You’ve had a blanket of sadness over you that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But Sonny brought you back last night. He took the blanket off…so to speak. I see that happiness comin’ back. That sparkle.”

  Tears fell as I pulled into a spot outside the station and listened to her. Vivi knew me better than anyone, and deep down, I knew she was right.

  “I’m sorry, sweetie,” she said.

  “No, it’s okay. I know what you’re saying. I haven’t felt that good and that real in forever.”

  “Listen to me,” she continued. “Your neck is nearly as red as the rest of us. You always had that little touch of class that the rest of us didn’t, but underneath all those beauty crowns, education, worldliness and debate trophies, you love a good honky-tonk and a cold longneck just as much as we do. When you married Harry, he wanted to change you…squash out that little bit of red, and he barely let the Southern Belle show. Blake, you gotta be true to yourself or you’ll die. Nothin’ about you ever needed changin’.”

  I was fully engulfed now. She had opened the dam. Everything she said was true, and it left me more confused than I could deal with. Not only was I questioning who I really loved…but now I had to ask myself who I really was. Vivi handed me a tissue out of the glove box and I opened my purse and fumbled for my makeup bag.

  Vivi had made me think. How could I not compare the two of them? I had loved Harry. I loved how he dressed and his preppy-boy good looks. I loved his ambitious nature. But now those ambitions were running me over like a bulldozer. I felt like I didn’t matter. I felt invisible. I was sad inside. But Sonny saw me and made me see myself again. And he made me like what I saw. I was me again, after a long absence. The sheer joy in that was indescribable. Sonny was quite the opposite of Harry in terms of looks. But deeper than that he was rugged and real and more emotional. He didn’t mind sharing his feelings with me. He was passionate and masculine and so confident. Harry acted confident, he loved the mirror all right, but it was just that—the constant checking on himself—that made him look insecure to me. Harry was ice to Sonny’s fire. And I knew I got that fire going. I loved that. Maybe most of all. A Belle loves to feel alluring and beautiful. It’s the Scarlett O’Hara in us. Most important, I felt like myself with Sonny. The best of me came out. He encouraged it and wasn’t challenged by it…or jealous of it. I could shine. And breathe.

  “I’m sorry,” Vivi said again. “I had this on my mind all day and I just needed you to hear it.”

  “Now?” I said, and swiped some powder across my red cheeks. “I hear you. I have felt sad. For a very long time. And Sonny makes me feel like me again. The two of them are so different. I will need to talk to Harry when the dust settles. But right now, we’ve got business in front of us and I am your counsel. Not the other way around.”

  “And I need you,” she said, smiling.

  We climbed out of the car and entered the station through the back door and walked down the hall to Sonny’s office. Vivi clutched my hand before we entered and we looked at each other. We were in this together. Like everything else.

  Sonny was alone in his office. He had his back to us when we tapped on his door.

  “Hey, ladies, have a seat.” I wanted to kiss him and hug him, but we just sat down in the overstuffed leather chairs. I scooted my chair up close to his desk.

  Vivi spoke right up. “So, tell me, is my Lewis alive? Please tell me you think so.”

  I looked nervously at Sonny. He glanced at me and in that instant, I knew it was okay.

  “Vivi, as you probably know, we have had many calls and leads and have even followed some of Dallas’s leads from her TV campaign. But one in particular kept croppin’ up, over and over,” Sonny explained. “Seems many people think they saw Lewis at a bank in Birmingham not too long after you reported him dead at the motel and we realized he’d gone missing. I had Bonita check things out and the videotape and bank records do show it was him.”

  “Oh, my God!” Vivi jumped up. “That is just the news I was hoping for!” Vivi was full of relief and hope.

  “We are checking on a couple more things at the mome
nt, but we expect the answers will be in shortly.” Sonny gave her a confident smile. He knew more than he was saying.

  “Do you have any idea where he is? I mean, is he still okay? You said you know he was at the bank but that was ages ago. Where is he now? Is he still alive?” Vivi sat back down and began to look worried.

  “We will know more in just a little bit.”

  “We will sit right here till we have our answers,” I told her, grabbing her hand. I blew out a big breath and looked at Sonny.

  “Is Harry here?” I asked.

  Sonny looked at me with that look, eyebrow up. “Missing him?”

  “Hell, no, she isn’t,” Vivi answered for me.

  “No, just asking.” Preparing, more like it.

  “He went for coffee and Krispy Kremes.”

  “Oh, God, is it gonna be a long night?” I asked. Anytime somebody breaks out the Krispy Kremes at night, you just knew it was gonna be a long one.

  “It could be,” Sonny said.

  My cell rang. Kitty. “Not now, Mother,” I said out loud as I answered the phone anyway.

  But that didn’t stop her, and she started talking a mile a minute. She always did, but this was even faster than usual. Her words whooshing by, I caught the word “letters” and then “Meridee.”

  “Slow down,” I said.

  “Wait,” Sonny interrupted. “Is that Kitty? Is she with your grandmother?”

  “Are you still with Meridee?” I asked her, then nodded to Sonny.

  “Tell her we need to see them. Tell them to come on down to the station right away.”

  I relayed the messages and hung up, becoming more confused by the second.

  “What the hell is going on?” Vivi couldn’t take it anymore. “Is Lewis alive—I mean right this minute? I just need to know the answer to that one question. Can anyone tell me that?” She was losing it, heading for an all-night conniption, and we just didn’t want that.