Steve could tell by Dave’s eyes he was amazed at Amanda’s reactions, not only to the house, but to the children. He didn’t voice this though. He simply said, “Amanda liked everything I’ve done to the old place so far. When we go back I want her to pick out some granite countertops for the kitchen cabinets and some colors for other rooms.”
“I’m glad you’re doing that Amanda. Things like that need the woman’s touch. I’d hate to think what this place would look like if Claudia let me do all the decorating.”
“I don’t even want to think about what it would look like.” Claudia shuttered and changed the subject. “Tell us more about your family, Amanda. We’re anxious to meet them.”
Amanda was delighted to talk about her daughter and her family. When she finished, Claudia said, “It sounds as if you have a loving family just like we do.”
“Of course I think they’re wonderful, and they’re anxious to meet everyone. Especially Steve. Diane is delighted to see her mother happy, but she wants to meet the man who has stolen her mother’s heart. My sister isn’t so sure about the whole thing. She’s always been a little over-protective of me.”
“Sounds like Candy and Robin,” Dave said. “Candy wants to murder her sister sometimes, but let someone else say something about her and Candy’s ready to fight.”
A car sounded in the driveway. “It’s probably Mrs. Johnson. One of the girls must have forgotten something.”
“I’ll see, honey.” Dave stood and went to look out the door. They heard him say, ”Damn, it’s Mama. I’ll get rid of her. He opened the door and went outside.
Chapter 19
Twenty-Four Months Earlier
“Well, girls, how do I look?”
“For what we have to work with, you look beautiful,” Wilma said.
Amanda frowned. “I’m not sure how to take that.”
They all laughed and Wilma corrected herself. “I meant the tools we have. Not you. You’re great. The way Joanna put your hair in that French braid makes you look about twenty-five years old.”
“Now that’s stretching it, Wilma. Twenty-five-year olds don’t have wrinkles around their eyes and mouth like I do.”
“Will you quit worrying about your wrinkles. I have as many as you do, and I’m a little younger.” Phyllis leaned close to Amanda. “See these around my eyes.”
“Will you girls hush?” Joanna said. “Nobody on this island’s an old lady. Especially not you, Amanda. You’ve done things that make me shudder.”
“Yes, I’m the youngest one here and I can’t imagine tackling the jungle like you did. You’d think you were a teenager and fearless.” Debbie hugged a sleeping Bobby to her breast
“Yea,” Phyllis said. “It took three of us to be brave enough to gather these flowers for your head piece and leis for you and Steve. Here let me put it on you.”
She placed the lei around Amanda’s neck and then put the wreath of red flowers on her head.
“What kind of flowers are these anyway?” Debbie asked. “They look like orchids.”
“They are wild orchids of some sort,” Joanna said. She picked up a big bouquet of mixed flowers and handed them to Amanda. “And these are mostly from the hibiscus family, I think.”
Amanda held the flowers and said, “They’re beautiful. It’s too bad I don’t have a proper wedding dress to go with them.” She looked down at her shorts and the blouse the natives had returned earlier.
“Well, honey, just be glad they’re clean.” Wilma laughed.
“I know they’re clean.” She laughed. “I remember how I had to stay hidden in here while you took all my clothes and washed them”
“Well if they hadn’t dried in the hot mid-day sun, you’d be getting married either in wet clothes or naked,” Wilma teased.
They all laughed and Phyllis said, “Yeah, and since it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding, it’s a good thing the men kept Steve occupied. If he’d known you were hiding in your hut naked he would’ve slipped up here for sure.”
Amanda blushed.
“Now there’s only one more thing to do,” Joanna said. “Since you wouldn’t choose one of us for your maid-of-honor, we decided the only fair thing to do was to draw straws. Whoever gets the short straw is it. You hold them.” She gave four straws to Amanda. “Steve wouldn’t choose a best man either so the men are doing the same thing.
One by one, the women pulled a straw from Amanda’s hand.
“It’s me!” Phyllis exclaimed. “I got the short one.”
“I’m delighted to have you as my maid-of-honor, Phyllis.” Amanda grinned. She looked at the others. “I feel all of you are honor attendants. You’ve been so good to me.”
“It’s ’cause we love you, Amanda.” Debbie stood. “Now, Bobby and I are going to get a ringside seat to watch this all come off.”
“I’ll go with you, Debbie.” Joanna stood. “I’m anxious to see who the best man is.”
“Wait a minute,” Amanda said. “She walked up to Debbie and looked down at Bobby. “Now, big, fellow, you’ve got to wake up so you can watch your Nana get married.” She bent down and kissed the sleeping baby.
“I just hope he doesn’t wake up and scream to eat,” Debbie said. “We’ll see you in a few minutes.”
When they were out the door, Phyllis said, “Okay, Wilma. Since you’re the leader of this event, what are my duties?”
“I’m going to go see if the guys are ready. You stand outside the hut and when I give you the signal, it’s your duty to get the bride to the church on time.”
“No problem.”
Wilma hugged Amanda. “I’m happy for you kid. I don’t want you to ever think this isn’t a real wedding.”
“I know it’s real. It’s also forever.”
Wilma smiled and nodded. “We’ll see you in a minute.”
“Well, Amanda,” Phyllis said putting her arm across her friend’s shoulder. “After today, I’m not going to be the only old married woman in the group.”
“I’m glad to be joining the rank of the married folks.” She smiled at Phyllis. “I hope Steve and I will always be as happy as you and Curtis.”
“You will be, honey. You will be.” She patted Amanda’s arm and stepped outside. In a minute she said, “Well, there goes the signal. I guess they’re ready for us.” She motioned for Amanda to come out of the hut. “Let’s get this show on the road so you can get to the honeymoon.”
Amanda blushed again.
They were half way to the waiting group when Phyllis leaned over and whispered, “Not that you two haven’t already started the honeymoon.”
“How can you be so sure about that?”
“Honey the walls of these huts are built of leaves, remember?”
Before Amanda could answer the strange plinking of a crude stringed instrument began playing. It wasn’t the wedding march. It was simply one plink after another. Yet it made her smile inside as she and Phyllis approached an altar of sand decorated all over with a variety of colorful flowers. Steve stood there waiting for her with his best man, Ray. Tony was also there. But she hardly noticed the other two men. Steve had all her attention. He looked so tall and handsome, though he also had on his worn shorts and shirt. The lei, which matched hers, seemed to bring out the whiteness of his hair and beard. Amanda thought he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen.
When Steve saw her coming toward him, he smiled.
She returned it.
Everyone, except Mr. X, was seated on the makeshift seats of logs pulled onto the beach. Mr. X was watching the festivities as he stood propped against a palm tree in the edge of the jungle.
Steve took Amanda’s hand as she stepped on the mound of flower-covered sand. He looked into her eyes and continued to smile. She was captivated by the look. Her heart flipped and at that moment she knew marrying him was the right thing to do.
Tony said a short prayer and then had them say as many of the traditional wedding vows as he could
remember. He then said, “Does anyone object to this marriage?”
Nobody said anything, though a couple of them stole a glance at Mr. X. With his negative attitude, they never knew what to expect from him.
When he didn’t speak, Tony turned to Amanda and Steve. “Now please say the vows you wanted to pledge to each other?”
Amanda turned and took Steve’s hand. “Steve, you’re the only man I’ve ever truly loved. You’re my soul mate and the man of my dreams. I love you with all my heart, my body, and my soul. I’ll be there for you as your help mate, as your friend and as your lover until the day I die.”
“Amanda, though I have few worldly goods to share with you, I want you to know everything I have is yours. You are the other half of my soul. The love I feel for you has no end and as long as there is breath in me I’ll be by your side to love you, to protect you and to cherish you.”
He started to kiss Amanda, but Tony whispered, “Not yet.”
They turned back to Tony. He smiled. “By the power invested in me by the inhabitants of this island and by the laws which our members have declared, I pronounce you husband and wife in front of God and these our friends. Steve, now’s the time to kiss your bride.”
Steve took Amanda in his arms and pulled her to him. He kissed her long and gently as everyone stood and cheered.
Joanna shouted, “Throw the bouquet, Amanda.”
“Yes, throw it,” Debbie chimed in.
When Steve let her go, Amanda turned her back and threw her bouquet over her head. It landed in a surprised Wilma’s hands.
“Now as best man, I get to kiss the bride,” Ray said.
Soon they were all hugging and kissing. Eventually they moved to the food which had been set up on a make-shift table made from the piece of airplane they’d ridden to the island. There were several kinds of fish along with crab and lobster. There was a big mound of cooked sea purslane, a large basket of berries and nuts and as a surprise, the women had fashioned a wedding cake using different fruits.
Amanda exclaimed. “Folks, it all looks great.” She smiled at them and added, “What a wonderful variety of fish.”
“You can thank Steve for them. To keep him from sneaking back to your hut there were only two things we could do with him. We made him fish all morning then we made him take a long bath at the lagoon this afternoon,” Curtis said.
“A cold one,” Ray added.
Steve laughed. “They didn’t want me to see you. Why, I don’t know.”
“Cause it’s bad luck to see the bride before the ceremony, big boy.” Wilma thumped him on the back of the head.
“Ouch,” Steve said and winked at her.
Mr. X sauntered up and took a lobster. “Sure is a lot of foolishness if you ask me. Why go through all this? You’re sleeping together anyway. I’m the only one around here who doesn’t have a woman to pounce on when I’m horny.” He started to walk away and turned. “Might just have to get me one of those naked little native girls. I could probably have a ball with one of them.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Amanda said.
“You’d better not dare,” Ray said. “The natives have a rapport with Amanda and we don’t want anything we do to upset that. We never know when we might need them again.”
“Ain’t none of your damn business what I do,” Mr. X snapped and stomped off.
“He wouldn’t do that, would he?” Curtis looked concerned.
“No,” Ray said. “You know how he is. He has to say something to try and shock us every chance he gets.”
Soon they were again enjoying the wedding supper as they continually kidded Amanda and Steve about the forthcoming wedding night. Mr. X and his threat were forgotten.
* * * *
June 5—11:30 PM
Wendover, GA
Their passion spent, Amanda and Steve were lying in their usual sleeping position on the air mattress in their soon to be permanent bedroom.
“I hate having to leave here tomorrow,” she mumbled. “I’m going to miss this.”
“Why don’t you stay?”
“Oh, Steve, you know why. There are things in Charlotte I have to take care of.”
“I know.” He ran his hand up and down her arm. “I also need to meet your family before I take you away from them.”
“I’m not sure it’ll be as nice for us there as it has been here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t have the house yet. Noah said there had been some kind of delay with the missionaries leaving.” She sighed. “I’m not sure Callie will approve of us sleeping together at her house.”
“Then we’ll get a motel.”
“There’s something else I need to tell you about myself, Steve.”
“I thought I knew everything there was to know about you.”
“There’s one thing I’ve never told you and I’m afraid Callie will bring it up. I don’t want you to get caught broadsided.” She sighed. “I just hope it won’t change the way you feel about me.”
“Amanda, there’s nothing in the world which could make me change the way I feel about you.”
“I had an affair when I was in my twenties,” she blurted.
“Let’s see. You’re in your fifties so that makes your affair about thirty-five years ago. What has that got to do with us?”
“Let me tell you the whole story and you’ll see.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“My parents were older when Callie and I were born. Mom was forty-four when she had Callie and forty-seven when she had me. Dad was in his late fifties. They were both very strict. We weren’t allowed to date when we were teenagers. Daddy always said he’d not have his girls being talked about in the neighborhood. The sad thing was, we were talked about because of the way he treated us. But because Mom didn’t fight him, we didn’t dare fight him either. He had a heart attack and died when I was sixteen. Callie was in her first year of college. Because I was still at home it fell my lot to take care of Mom. After Daddy was gone, she either couldn’t or wouldn’t take care of herself.”
She took a long breath and Steve pulled her closer to him without saying anything. She went on, “I finished high school and since Callie was now a junior in college, I decided I’d continue taking care of Mom until she graduated and took over. I got a part-time job in a dress shop and stayed home. Well, things didn’t work out as I planned. After a while Mom got really sick and the assets I’d counted on for my education dwindled. By the time Callie graduated, there was very little left. Three weeks after my sister’s graduation, Mom died. As you did here, we had to sell the house to settle the bills. We had a little money left, but there wasn’t enough for me to go to a four-year school. Callie insisted I at least go to community college. I did and found I had a knack for the law. She insisted on me taking all the money and studying to become a paralegal.”
She sighed again. “By the time I finished, I was in my early twenties. And whether you believe it or not, a movie now and then with the boy next door were the only dates I’d ever had. Callie met Sam Edgerton the summer I finished community college and they had a whirlwind courtship. She’d become more worldly in college and she knew what she was doing. They got married that fall. Though they asked me to move in with them, I didn’t. They had a small apartment and I knew I’d be in the way. I decided to leave Charlotte and go to Raleigh to find a job. I landed one with a large prestigious law firm. I met Reggie Winston when our firm defended him on a possession of drugs charge. I was a very naïve woman, Steve. I didn’t know much about men because as I said, my dating experience was limited.”
She bit her lip and Steve said, “Amanda, you don’t have to tell me all of this. As I said, it was a long time ago and it doesn’t change any of the feelings I have for you.” He kissed the top of her head.
“I want you to know the whole story, Steve.”
“If you want to tell me, I’m listening, but don’t expect me to not love you just the way I do now when you’r
e through.”
“Oh, I hope you still do.” She kept her hand on his chest as if she expected him to get up and run. “Reggie was the son of a leading business man, but he was less than a good catch. He thought life owed him everything simply because he was alive. Of course I didn’t see that at the time. All I saw was a good-looking man who was paying a lot of attention to this inexperienced woman who wasn’t especially pretty and definitely not very bright.”
“Now that I have to take issue with. She’s beautiful and one of the smartest persons I’ve ever known.”
“I’m glad you think so.” Amanda hugged him tightly and went on. “As I said, Reggie had been caught with drugs and of course I believed him when he said he was innocent. And as far as the firm was concerned, he was. He was found not guilty. After his trial was over we began to date. At first it was wonderful. We went to some of the most expensive places to eat. He introduced me to the finer things, the symphony, the ballet, live theater and such. I was so caught up in it all I didn’t know when or how to put on the brakes. It wasn’t long until he was taking me to motels and hotels in and out of town. He even brought me to Charlotte so he could meet Callie. She approved of him because he was a charmer and he won her over quickly. Sam wasn’t so easily fooled and told me I’d better take it slower. I didn’t listen.”
She shifted her position slightly. “Reggie took me home to meet this family and they were very cold to me. A little later I found out I wasn’t the type of girl they’d permit their precious son to marry. According to them, I was nothing but trash and they insisted he drop me immediately and make up with Bitsy, or Bunny, or whoever it was he’d been seeing before me. Reggie didn’t like being told what to do so a couple of weeks later we eloped to South Carolina. Of course his dad was furious. He threatened to disown him if he didn’t divorce me immediately. I was proud of Reggie when he refused. We lived in a little one-bedroom apartment near Cameron Village. Our happiness didn’t last long. Reggie found out he was going to have to work if he stayed married to me. He didn’t like that at all and told me I had to support us for a while. I did, but it got harder and harder. Reggie was drinking and doing drugs and he was squandering all of my money, which I turned over to him because I thought that was what a wife was supposed to do. I didn’t know how to stop him. I called Callie and she advised me to leave him, but that wasn’t the way I was raised. I was told whenever you married it was for life, no matter what so I kept hanging on. It wasn’t long until he began not only spending my money and abusing me mentally, he began to abuse me physically.”
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