by Debby Mayne
The ratty boy—obviously named Wilson—stands up, and without even lookin’ at the Moss girl, heads straight for the kitchen. I glance over at Celeste, and she frowns, but neither of us says nothin’.
Jimmy joins his wife and offers to help her up off the sofa. “Ever since we found out we was havin’ a baby, I wanna make sure Celeste is comfy. Sure does worry me when she gets sick.” He pulls her to her feet and gently places his arm around her. “You feelin’ all right, sugar?”
She nods and smiles like she’s the happiest woman on earth. I feel a tiny twinge of jealousy, but I shake it off. I always thought I’d be a daddy by now, but I’m not, so I need to accept it. I don’t go to church every Sunday, but when I do, I keep hearin’ about the Lord’s will and how He makes things happen when they’re s’posed to. I don’t see any argument against that, so I figure my time ain’t come yet.
When we get to the kitchen, where Laura has lined the food up on the counter, buffet style, Jimmy pulls up a chair for Celeste. “Take a seat, honey, and I’ll fill your plate.” He glances up at the Moss children and Wilson. “Y’all don’t mind if I fix my beautiful baby mama her food first, do you? She’s eatin’ for two, ya know.”
Wilson ignores Jimmy and starts heapin’ piles of food on his plate, while Renee glares at him with only an occasional glance over at Celeste. Is that longing I see on her face? There’s something I can’t explain about what’s happenin’ here, and it ain’t all good either. Wilson and Renee still aren’t speakin’ or even lookin’ at each other as she follows him into the family room with her half-filled plate.
Jimmy places the plate of food down in front of Celeste and then gets in line behind Laura and Pete. I feel awkward since I wasn’t invited. “I don’t wanna crash y’all’s party.”
“Don’t be silly.” Jimmy looks around and settles his gaze on me. “Why don’t you call Priscilla and have her join us? I’m sure you can see we have plenty.”
That would make things less uncomfortable, so I pull out my cell phone and punch in Priscilla’s salon number. “She just left,” Sheila says. “But if you call her cell phone real quick, I bet you can catch her on her way home.”
I try her cell phone, and she answers before the end of the first ring. “Did you find them?”
“Yup, and we’re all standin’ here in the Mosses’ kitchen, about to eat supper.”
“Can’t you get away?”
“Um . . . no.” I glance around and see several pairs of eyes focused on me. “Guess what.”
I hear her sigh. “What?”
“You’re invited. Why don’t you swing by for a bite to eat? I’m sure everyone would love to see you.”
“Did Celeste—?”
I interrupt her before she starts askin’ questions I can’t answer in front of all these folks. “It was Jimmy’s idea to call you, and everyone misses you.”
“Okay, I get it. I’ll be right over.”
Priscilla is a smart woman. I’m glad she picked up on the vibes.
I know I stretched things a bit ’cause not everyone is as crazy about Priscilla as I have been since the moment I laid eyes on her. But this is one of those times I think it’s important for her to see why I haven’t been able to capture Celeste and Jimmy and take them to her. Once she gets here, it’ll be obvious.
“So is she comin’?” Laura asks.
I nod. “She said she’ll be right over.”
Laura frowns as she glances around. “We’re not gonna wait for her.”
“I don’t think she expects us to.” I look down at Laura who obviously can’t stand Priscilla, or anyone else for that matter. She’s one of those people my uncle used to call “joy stealers.” When everything is goin’ good, she’s the one who points out anything bad that can possibly happen.
Pete goes out to the garage and returns with a couple folding chairs. “Laura always said the best thing about havin’ a round kitchen table is you can always fit one more person.”
Laura’s lips is smilin’, but her eyes is shooting daggers at her husband. Hoo-boy, I sure don’t wanna be around after ever’one leaves. I can only imagine the chewin’ out Pete’s gonna get.
Folks take so much time gettin’ their food, Priscilla arrives before everyone’s seated. “Bonnie Sue let me in and told me to come on back to the kitchen.”
Pete gestures toward the food. “Get yourself a plate and fill it. We have plenty of chairs.”
36
Priscilla
The dynamics in the Mosses’ kitchen are sizzling with a combination of hostility, one-upsmanship, and cluelessness. Laura obviously wishes we weren’t here. Celeste is walking around, flaunting her pregnant belly that isn’t even big enough to be donned in maternity clothes. And Pete acts like he’s having the time of his life, entertaining all his old pals, except when he gives that Wilson boy a look that could kill.
Tim and I exchange a glance, and I can tell he sees it too. He might not have the best vocabulary in the world, but he’s a very smart man.
“So what do you think you’re havin’, Celeste?” Pete asks. “A girl or boy?”
Celeste shrugs. “I don’t have no way of knowin’.”
“One of the ladies who answers the phones where I work says you can tie a weddin’ ring to a string and dangle it over your belly.” Pete pretends to hold an invisible string as he explains. “If it’s a girl, it swings sideways, and if it’s a boy, it swings longways.”
“No,” Laura says. “I believe it’s the other way around.” She makes a face. “But that’s just a silly wives’ tale.”
“Way I see it,” Jimmy says, “is we have a fifty-fifty shot at havin’ a boy.”
“That’ll be good.” Laura rolls her eyes. “ ’Cause girls will give you nothin’ but grief.”
Jimmy glances over at Celeste before responding. “We don’t care what we have, but I have to admit I’m kinda hopin’ we have twins.”
Celeste sputters, and food comes flying out of the corners of her mouth. “Twins? Jimmy, if we have twins, I’ll—”
Jimmy puts his arm around her and squeezes. “Honey, there’s prob’ly no chance on God’s green earth we’ll have twins, so don’t get all worked up.” He gives Pete and Tim a conspiratorial glance. “But if we do have twins, you know I’ll be right there helpin’.”
Pete says, “Just like I did with our young’uns.”
“Really, Pete?” Laura has her hand on her hip as she glares at her husband.
I lift my hands to stop this conversation from escalating. “Okay, I think we get the picture. It’s not easy raising children, but I’m sure we all agree that they’re blessings.”
Laura drops her biscuit, gives me a look that sends a chill down my spine, jumps up, and runs from the room. Pete looks at me and shakes his head. “You really done it this time, Priscilla.” Before I have a chance to say another word, he’s up from the table, running after his wife.
Okay, I’m obviously missing something because as far as I know, I haven’t said anything everyone didn’t already know. I’ve stated the fact that it’s not easy raising children, and I’ve voiced the opinion I think most decent people have: that children are blessings. That sounds supportive to me. What did I do wrong? I look at Tim and see that he’s just as stunned as I am.
Jimmy stands and hooks his thumbs in his belt loops. “Maybe I better go see what’s goin’ on. Even for Laura, that’s an overreaction. Even if she’s had nothin’ but trouble from them young’uns, I don’t think she’d wanna trade any of ’em in.” He takes a step toward the door and glances over his shoulder at Celeste.
“I don’t know if it’s such a good idea to go out there,” Celeste says. “There’s no tellin’ what they’ll do to you.”
Tim nods. “Let’s give ’em just a few minutes alone. Maybe Pete’ll come back in here and tell us what this is all about.”
“Oh, okay.” Jimmy lifts his hands in surrender before walking back over to the counter. He lifts the unopened bag. “Who
wants dessert? We brung chocolate chip cookies, pecan pie, and pound cake.”
“I’ll have a little of each.” Celeste tilts her head down and giggles, something I don’t think I’ve ever heard her do. “This baby is makin’ me hungry nonstop.”
Jimmy laughs and tells us about how she craved hush puppies last night, and I wonder if they’ve completely forgotten about Laura and Pete. Tim glances at the door and then at me, shaking his head, letting me know he’s thinking the same thing.
I turn down dessert, but Tim brings me a cookie anyway, so I nibble on it, while Jimmy and Celeste talk about some of her pregnancy issues. When she turns, her maternity top clings to her still-small waist.
We’re all finished with our desserts when Pete returns and sits down at the table. He folds his hands and looks around at the rest of us. I hold my breath until he finally opens his mouth to speak.
“Ever since we found out Renee was pregnant, me and Laura’s been on edge.” He turns his attention to me. “I wanna apologize to you, Priscilla. You didn’t say nothin’ wrong. We’re just bein’ a tad too sensitive these days.”
“I didn’t know Renee was pregnant,” Celeste says.
Pete shakes his head. “She’s not anymore. Renee lost the baby.”
“I’m so sorry.” Celeste’s voice cracks. “I wish I knew.”
“It’s our fault we didn’t tell you.” Pete stands back up. “Her sorry, good-for-nothin’ boyfriend took off as soon as he found out she was pregnant.”
Celeste points toward the family room. “Ain’t that her boyfriend out there right now?”
Pete nods. “Yup. He came back right after she had the miscarriage.” The strain on his face shows as he continues. “When I told Renee he couldn’t come back here, she said she’d go somewhere else to see him.” The sound of his shaky voice breaks my heart.
“What a dawg.” Jimmy cracks his knuckles. “You didn’t have to let him back in.”
“It’s not that easy,” Pete says. “We tell him that, and we might never see Renee again. She mighta gone astray, but she’s one of our babies, and we love her no matter what.”
“Of course you do.” I can’t just sit back and say nothing. “But she’s also smart, and I think she’ll eventually come to her senses.”
“You’d think . . . ” Celeste stands up. “C’mon, folks, I wanna go out there and get more comfortable. This chair is hurtin’ my back.”
She leads the way to the family room, with Jimmy scurrying right behind her. I watch as Celeste plops down on the loveseat, right beside Renee, who scoots over even closer to her shaggy boyfriend. Jimmy grabs a pillow from the sofa and gently places it behind her before sitting on the arm of the loveseat.
Celeste turns to Renee. “Ain’t it sweet how Jimmy is so concerned about me now that I’m carryin’ his baby? He’s such a wonderful man.”
Renee scowls at Celeste but doesn’t say a word.
That doesn’t deter Celeste. “Good men are hard to find, but they’re worth waitin’ for.”
Now it’s obvious to me and most likely everyone else in the room what Celeste is doing. I have to admit she has more audacity than I ever gave her credit for.
“Just last night, when I had a teeny little cravin’ for somethin’, Jimmy didn’t waste a single solitary minute. He took off and got me what I wanted . . . ” She leans over and looks Renee in the face. “ . . . and now look at him. What a wonderful man.”
Jimmy has a stunned look on his face. Laura and Pete are sitting there staring at Celeste, their mouths open, obviously dumbfounded. I turn to Tim and see the look of shock that we’re all feeling.
“You two are obviously in love, so I bet he’ll be just as good to you as my Jimmy is to me.” Celeste settles back against the pillow and sighs. “I bet he don’t make you want for nothin’ very long before he gets it for you.”
The room grows still and silent for what seems like forever, until Renee jumps off the loveseat and turns to face the boy. “You are nothing but a jerk. Get outta my house. Right. Now.” She takes off running upstairs.
The boy shrugs but doesn’t move, until Pete stands up and takes a step in his direction. “You heard my daughter. Out. Now.”
Laura walks up behind Pete and folds her arms as she glares down at the boy. “Wilson, if you don’t leave right this minute, there’s no tellin’ what me or my husband will do to you.”
Without wasting another second, Wilson hops up and makes a beeline for the door. Laura slams it behind him. “Good riddance.” She brushes her hands together and turns to Celeste. “I never knew you were so smart.”
37
Trudy
When I call Laura to let her know I’ll be at the reunion after all and that I’m bringing a guest, she seems distracted. “Okay, fine.”
Then I call Mama, who clearly isn’t happy about the fact that I’m bringing Darryl to the reunion. “What if Tim Puckett shows an interest in you? I don’t know this Darryl guy, but I do know Tim has the means to sup—”
“Stop it now, Mama. Darryl is not only sweet and cute, he has a solid direction in life.”
“The question is, what direction?” Her tone is annoying, and I want nothing more than to let her have it with sarcasm.
But I don’t. “Just trust me on this. You’ll like him.”
“You do realize he can’t stay here, right?”
I sigh. I was hoping Mama would let him use one of the three guest rooms she has, now that my sisters and I no longer live with her and Daddy. “What do you suggest?”
“I’ve heard that all the hotels in Piney Point are already booked, since it’s comin’ up so soon. Maybe there’s a room somewhere in Hattiesburg.”
“I’m sure there is.” After I get off the phone, I go online, find a hotel as close to Piney Point as possible, and book a room for Darryl. As annoyed with Mama as I am, I have never expected anything different from her. She’s one of those conniving types who schemes to get her way. I shudder to think I might have been prone to that back in my younger days.
Darryl doesn’t seem to mind that he’ll be staying in the next town over. “It’ll be fun to meet all your old classmates. I bet you were a load of fun to be with back in high school.”
“I’m not so sure I was.” I don’t know if it’s a good idea to warn him about Michael and how distant I was to my classmates, so I decide to wait a while to tell him. Once I’ve told him, I know there’ll be no taking it back.
My job has become so demanding I’ve had to arrange for backup, in case something goes wrong. “Just go and have a good time, Trudy,” my supervisor tells me. “You need a vacation.”
“I know, but—”
“No buts. What’s the worst thing that can happen? This is department-store fashion, not life or death.”
“Okay.”
It’s Thursday, and the class reunion bonfire is tomorrow night, so I mentally tick off the items I’ll need. Darryl calls me on my cell phone.
“Are you sure I won’t need to wear a suit to the Saturday night party?”
“Positive. Most guys just wear polo shirts.”
“Khaki or navy pants?”
I smile. Shortly after I started dating Darryl, I took him on a shopping spree to help him pick out some clothes that flatter him more than the high-waisted, high-waters and T-shirts with sayings he used to favor. Amazing how much better a man can look in the right clothes.
“Bring both.”
“I don’t want to embarrass you in front of all your friends, Trudy. I know how important the twentieth reunion is.”
“There’s no way you’ll embarrass me, Darryl. So stop worrying. I’ll pack as soon as I get home, and I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
After we hang up, I reflect on what he told me about his twentieth class reunion. I was right about him being on the geeky side when he was in school. He said that the very girls who never gave him the time of day were all over him at the reunion. I listened to him, all the while thinking I would have
been one of those girls. I shudder to think I’ve ever been like that, but I’ve changed.
Since I laid everything out last night, it doesn’t take me long to pack. I call Darryl and let him know I’m ready.
“I’ll be right there,” he says.
I stand by the door, and as soon as I hear his footsteps, I open it. He grins, opens his arms wide, and sweeps me into them. His hugs are the best.
“What’s all that?” he asks, pointing to the pile of bags behind me.
“That’s just my stuff. You do have room, don’t you?”
He laughs. “Good thing I travel light.” Without another word, he hoists one bag over his shoulders and lifts another one. “Grab my keys out of my pocket, okay? You can unlock the car.”
Darryl is such a gentleman he wouldn’t even think of asking me to carry my own bags, which makes me want to help. Having someone truly caring for me is so different from anything I’ve ever experienced before. What Darryl and I have is real and solid. I sure hope Mama can see that, but I’m not sure she will. After all, it’s taken me years of being away from Piney Point to know what’s really important, and I still struggle with some of the insignificant beauty issues that continue to nag me. Like aging. A woman’s body changes so much as she approaches middle age it’s a wonder anyone recognizes her after the age of thirty-five . . . or maybe even thirty. I always thought I was above the butt spread and squishy midsection, but I’m dealing with it just as much as the next woman. Well, maybe not quite as much. I’ve been selling fashion long enough to see that I’m still better off than most.
All the way to Piney Point, I fill Darryl in on what to expect. “Mama is rather unenlightened about a lot of things,” I warn.
He casts a quick smile in my direction. “Trudy, honey, don’t worry so much. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I’ll see.”