Love in a Small Town

by Curtiss Ann Matlock

  Savannah had the strength of her home behind her now, and she was standing firm. Tommy Lee felt Stephen was being run over, and this made him start to have sympathy for the boy.

  “You can’t be forcing a Collier woman to do anything, you know,” he told Stephen, breaking down and offering the boy a Coca-Cola and trying to help by explaining some of the facts of the family.

  But Stephen said, “Savannah is now Savannah Locke—and she never has even carried the Collier name.”

  Tommy Lee shut his mouth on further advice as to how Stephen should progress. If the young man would not listen to the facts of the case, he wasn’t about to listen to how Tommy Lee had learned to go about bending those facts. Tommy Lee figured there was no profit in trying to help a fool. He began to think it best that Savannah stay home and that he had been mistaken in giving her hand in matrimony to this senseless boy who didn’t know enough to admit what he didn’t know.

  Savannah was causing Tommy Lee considerable consternation. He worried about how she waddled around.

  “Should she be going up and down those stairs?” he asked Molly.

  “The doctor says she is in very good health and that a little bit of exertion is good for her.”

  “I don’t recall you gettin’ that big. Isn’t she gettin’ too big?”

  “She has gained too much—she’s been unhappy and just kept eating. And Mama says she was too thin before and that her body is making up for that in order to provide for the baby."

  Whatever was the cause, it was hard for Tommy Lee to watch his daughter struggle to get up from a chair and sigh in relief when she sat down and to keep holding her back all the time. Savannah was his firstborn, his only girl, and he began to get even more irritated at Stephen for getting her into this shape.

  That afternoon Molly and Odessa and Savannah and Ruthann held a powwow on the front porch, discussing prospective doctors and getting an appointment set up for Savannah for the following day. Stephen returned that night but left a bent young man. A young man who was trying to make a dent in a brick wall with his head, instead of a decent tool. Tommy wondered if there would be a decent tool for the matter.

  Most of that day and those that followed Tommy Lee kept to himself in his shop, kept his music turned up and his attention focused on building one engine and rebuilding another. He thought how Molly thought he kept himself separated out in the shop, and quite often he would have to admit to the truth of that. This time, however, he was keeping to himself and observing, too. He observed everyone coming and going and that Savannah appeared just fine where she was. He observed that Molly was totally taken up with her daughter and appeared to have all but forgotten him. He observed that he was, for the moment, somewhat content with that, although not totally.

  By Wednesday, Tommy Lee had grown decidedly discontented with the entire situation. It seemed to him that there were a lot of people at his house and that not one of them was the one person who was supposed to be there, which was his wife.

  Ruthann Johnson was now residing in the guest room, and Stephen had taken it upon himself to move into the boys’ room. Tommy Lee’s estimation of the young man rose with that happening, although it meant he had to keep running into Stephen, and this worked on his nerves. Also, friends of all three of the young people were coming and going. Molly herself came and went several times a day, and her mother and each one of her sisters paid a visit, too. Kaye came, bringing Country Interior Designs for the baby that wasn’t even here yet. Hard rock music played through the house, and at least once a day Stephen and Savannah got into a fight.

  Then, one evening after a hard day’s work, Tommy Lee came in hot and tired and thirsty for a cold Coca-Cola, only to discover that the case of soft drink he had purchased only three days before had been drunk up. Right that minute five people—three of them whom he didn’t know and who kept calling him "sir" —were drinking the last of his Cokes right then in his living room.

  Tommy Lee slammed the refrigerator closed. Twenty minutes later, showered and shaved and carrying a small bag, he left the house of people he barely knew. He hopped in the Corvette and took off down the road, letting the wind blow his damp hair. By feel, he pulled out a tape and stuck it in the cassette player, turned the volume up loud. Country music, sultry songs, Molly’s favorites, and he hummed along and drove faster.

  Chapter 27

  Once Upon A Lifetime

  When Tommy Lee came driving in, Molly was over in her mother’s dining room, with Kaye and Rennie and Mama, planning the baby shower for Savannah. Kaye had insisted she needed to be in charge, since she specialized in events of such a nature, as she put it. Rennie was so intent on being in on the plans that she had told Sam she would have to meet him later.

  “Molly, that’s Tommy Lee who just drove up.” Mama had the sheers pulled back and was peering out the window.

  “Hummm . . ." Molly was working on the list of people to invite to the shower. “Tommy Lee?” She realized then that she had heard a car. The faint sound of music came to her.

  She stood beside her mother and looked out. The sun had dropped but there was enough light to see the dust the Corvette stirred. Tommy Lee went clear to the end of the drive out beneath the tall elms. The engine noise stopped, but the music continued.

  Molly’s heartbeat fluttered. She hadn’t been thinking a lot about Tommy Lee lately. She had been so taken up with Savannah. Well, she had thought of Tommy Lee, but it was to think they would have to put their difficulties off for the time being, although several nights she had wished for him.

  “Oh!” she said now, whirling from the window, “maybe somethin’ happened with Savannah.”

  “Nothing has happened with Savannah,” Mama said, letting the sheer curtain fall back in place.

  Molly looked into Mama’s eyes. Then she put a hand to her hair and turned to Rennie.

  “Do I look okay? Oh, gosh, Rennie, can I use your lipstick?” She was glad she was freshly showered and wore a dress. Why was she so nervous? Was it some special knowledge in Mama’s eyes? Mama knew about these things.

  Rennie said, “You don’t want lipstick. . . . It’ll just get all smeared,” laughed, and waved Molly away. “Go see what he’s come for.”

  “Well, I don’t know why Tommy Lee can’t come to the door and ask for Molly,” Kaye said, digging into her purse. “That’s the gentlemanly thing. But wait a minute. Here . . ."

  Somewhat to Molly’s amazement, Kaye handed across a small spray of White Diamonds cologne. Molly spritzed several times on her neck, and Kaye, saying, “Oh, here, let me do it,” sprayed a bunch more and then made Molly lift her dress so she could spray the backs of Molly’s knees, "just in case.” Apparently Kaye had been doing some investigation in the seduction department.

  Then Molly was going out through the kitchen, out the back door and into the night, thinking that by the time she got over there Tommy Lee would be gone.

  He wasn’t. The Corvette sat in the deepening shadows beneath the trees, music coming from it, and Tommy Lee leaned against the front fender, waiting. Seeing him there, watching her come like he did, caused a warmth to shimmer up through Molly and burn on her cheeks. Her steps faltered, but Tommy Lee just kept on watching her, and she couldn’t quit looking at him. It was as if he drew her to him. Without one word, while she was about to say hello, he stretched out an arm, took hold of her and pulled her against him.

  He turned her, pressed her backside against him, and pointed. “Look there.”

  “Oh!”

  It was the moon. Big and round, just like God had polished a gold coin and placed it in the sky.

  Then Tommy Lee shifted, pulled her face around and kissed her.

  “Oh!” she said again when he lifted his head.

  He didn’t let go of her, though. He pressed himself against her, and he had grown hard, and Molly was growing damp.

  “They’re watchin’ from the window,” she said, feeling her mind sort of melting.

  “I do
n’t suppose they’ll see anything they haven’t seen before,” he said and kissed her again, a soft, seductive kiss.

  Molly trembled, and eagerness took hold of her. She truly hoped, however, that Tommy Lee did not intend to retire to the barn because as romantic as that was, she would so much rather have him in a soft bed, without sticky grasses or mosquitoes. These thoughts were very jumbled and frayed, positioned as she was, feeling the hardness of his body and inhaling the male scent of him.

  The next instant Tommy Lee straightened, took hold of her, and waltzed her out into the deeper darkness beneath the trees.

  Molly was so surprised that she stumbled, but only for an instant, and then there she was, dancing with Tommy Lee in the sultry night over the cooling ground. Around and around they went, flowing to their own steps, laughing and savoring the silliness. The song ended, and they fell together, gasping for breath.

  Then the music began again, the tones filtering to them through the darkness. A familiar, favorite song.

  “Once upon a lifetime . . ."

  Molly and Tommy Lee gazed at each other, as if each was judging whether to take hold, or even to breathe. Their hands met at the same instant. Again, this time with sureness and grace, they waltzed across the cooling earth, letting the music have its way with them.

  The song floated out into the night, as golden as the moon, coming over them like the moon did, flickering down through the elm leaves. Tommy Lee’s hand was warm upon her back, his breath caressing her ear, his scent and that of the sweet summer earth filling her. She saw the moonlight flicker in his eyes, saw the strong line of his jaw. She listened to the music and recalled the two frightened children staring out from their wedding photograph.

  Then Molly closed her eyes and gave herself over to the music, the moon, and the man who now held her in his arms. When the music coming from the car stopped, it went on and on inside her.

  Tommy Lee whispered in her ear, “I’m runnin’ away, and the only one I have to run to is you, Molly.”

  “Then I think you had better come inside.”

  They gazed at each other, Molly holding her breath. The cicadas took over for the music, and so did the night birds and the moonlight, all of it wrapping around them. Tommy Lee stepped out, and they walked hand in hand toward the cottage and into it. The moon shone so brightly through the kitchen window that Molly didn’t need to turn on the light.

  Tommy Lee pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Pushed her against the sink, held her there with his hard body and kissed her again, hard and demanding.

  She took his hand and led the way through the dim cottage. At the bedroom door, Tommy Lee kissed her again, and again in the middle of the almost black room, where he fumbled with the buttons of her dress and she with the buttons of his shirt.

  They tumbled across the bed, finding it and each other mostly by feel. She opened her eyes and saw thin moonlight patterns on the wall, thinner moonlight on Tommy Lee’s face. His features were gripped by a desire so fierce that seeing it set Molly on fire.

  The sounds of the bed creaking, of their breathing and grasping, drowned out the cicadas. They made love, knowing and giving and taking as only two people can when they know each and every sensitive spot of their bodies. The warm summer breeze blowing soft and silky on her skin, the sheet rubbing cool and smooth on her back, and Tommy Lee pounding hot and hard between her legs, taking her right up there to the moon and beyond.

  * * * *

  Clean out of breath, Tommy Lee rolled to his back and pulled Molly tight against him, felt her sweat slipping with his and her scent filling his nostrils. He breathed deeply, listened to his heartbeat try to slow back down. The pillow was heaven behind his head, and he held heaven in his arms, and tiny beams of heaven pierced the window screen and sprinkled over their bodies.

  Although he would never have given voice to any of those thoughts, he did think they were quite poetic. He thought he was maturing into a very deep thinker and that such thinking seemed to take hold of him at particular times. Molly stretched against him and gave a tremendous sigh of contentment that echoed all the way through him.

  “Amen,” he whispered, light enough that she couldn’t hear.

  The next instant he thought he heard another sigh out of the darkness. He lay very still, thinking that there couldn’t possibly be anyone else in the room. Peering into the darkness, he saw the faint, tiny patterns of moonlight on the walls. Then, for a heart-stopping instant, he thought he saw the old woman’s face there on the wallpaper. .. and another. . . And it seemed the faces smiled. He blinked, and they were gone.

  He stared at the walls, and then he ran his gaze around the room.

  Suddenly music came floating through the window. This startled Tommy Lee, taken as he was by seeing things appear and disappear on the wallpaper. It took him a few seconds to realize the music had been started again out in the Corvette.

  Molly giggled into his neck and murmured, “Mama or Rennie is bein’ helpful.”

  Embarrassment sliced through Tommy Lee when he thought of his mother-in-law knowing what he was doing, but Molly sliding halfway atop him and kissing him and putting her hands all over him pretty much pushed coherent thought aside.

  She said huskily, “Oh, Lordy, that music turns me on.”

  She was all the way atop him now, and he began to have fearful doubts about his capabilities. “Ah . . . Molly . . ."

  Her kiss stopped his words. A few moments later he discovered to his amazement that he could after all, and he did it until Molly lay limp beside him and was crying and saying, “I love you, Tommy Lee. . . ."

  “I love you, Molly.” The words came thickly. He’d very rarely said them aloud, but he felt very good for doing so now. “I do, Molly.”

  With that she cried a little more.

  Afterward, as they lay tangled and drifting into sleep, Tommy Lee again heard that strange satisfied sigh from around them. He was certain he heard it. It was as if the cottage sighed. It occurred to him that, sounds or no sounds, he no longer felt like something was going to fly across the room and hit him. He felt something of a conqueror. He had a strange but profound feeling that he had done a lot more than he realized.

  Chapter 28

  Heaven in My Woman's Eyes

  When Molly discovered that she had done the amazing thing of waking before Tommy Lee, she carefully slipped out of the bed and into Tommy Lee’s shirt and tiptoed to the kitchen, where she hurriedly put together a breakfast tray. If he awoke before she got it done, like as not, he wasn’t going to stay in bed. In twenty-five years, she had never known him to loll in bed once he’d gotten his eyes open. He might loll in his BarcaLounger or out around a car, but not in bed.

  It was a good thing Tommy Lee wasn’t much for having a big breakfast, because all she had was toast and coffee, but she thought it looked very pretty on the old wooden breakfast tray. She set the tray beside the bed on the vanity stool. When she went to slip back into bed, she found Ace had come and stolen her place, so she moved him to the foot.

  Once more stretched out beside him, she lay there and let herself gaze at Tommy Lee. She took note of his face in repose, how even in sleep his strength was apparent. He had a light stubble of a beard; he never had had a thick growth, and she was just as glad. He slept on his stomach, and the tanned skin of his back and shoulders glowed in the early morning sunlight.

  A flood of love washed over Molly, making her heart feel as if it swelled to take up her entire chest. It struck her that she could recall the sweet feeling from long ago. She thought that maybe by giving thanks for it and taking careful note of it, she could hold on to the feeling.

  She watched through blurred vision as Tommy Lee started digging his feet in the sheet as he came awake. Then he opened his eyes and looked at her. He smiled and reached for her, pulled her over to him and held her for about five seconds before he started stretching and sitting up and saying he smelled coffee.

  “I’ve missed your coffee, Molly
,” Tommy Lee said, holding the cup appreciatively.

  “Is that all?” She gave him a saucy look and took a bite of toast.

  “Don’t go fishin’ for compliments.”

  “Why not?” She had never felt quite so bold.

  Tommy Lee just smiled. Then he looked around the room. “Is this place always this bright?”

  She looked, too. “In the early mornings, before the sun gets up over the trees, I guess it is.”

  The expression on his face made her look around for something she may have missed. The room did seem different, although she couldn’t see how.

  She got up to adjust the blinds, saying, “The breeze is up. I guess that kind of makes the room feel more open . . . takes away the old scent.”

  The room seemed to feel lighter, and Molly realized that she felt lighter, too. As if a weight of sadness had been lifted from her heart. She didn’t feel the need to think about tomorrow or even that night. She was too caught up in enjoying this time with Tommy Lee, eating breakfast in bed, smiling at him and sharing silent secrets of what was between them.

  Tommy Lee had never been one to linger in bed, though, and no sooner had he finished his coffee than he was ready to be up and taking a shower. Molly sat and watched him pad naked out of the room. She sat and listened to the water running in the bathroom sink. She felt a sad fluttering in her chest that she tried to ignore but that kept growing.

  “I forgot my shavin’ kit in the car,” Tommy Lee called. “Would you get it, Molly?”

  She padded out in bare feet and Tommy Lee’s shirt, got the kit from the car, brought it into the bathroom, and set it on the shelf. Then she stopped, looked at the kit, and quietly opened it. Listening to the shower spray behind her, she pulled out Tommy Lee’s shaver, shaving cream, and aftershave lotion and set them out on the sink for him. From the medicine cabinet, she got her toothbrush and paste, put the paste on the brush, and laid it alongside Tommy Lee’s things.