She couldn’t stand it another minute. It had bothered her all night long, nibbling and gnawing her in her dreams, the look on Cal’s sweet face as Marty had kissed her hard. Dallas sat up in bed and wrote a text to Cal.
Hey Cal, what U saw was not what it looked like. I’m sorry.
She hit Send and leaned back against the tufted headboard of her bed. Waiting. Waiting. She let out a deep sigh, just as she heard the text jingle.
No biggie.
That was it. He didn’t say another word.
I’m not seeing him, he was drunk.
She couldn’t help herself. She felt awful, mostly because she didn’t want to hurt him—because she still missed him every second. But he didn’t answer her that time. She sighed and rolled over, petting Wilhelmina as the cat purred and stood to nuzzle her, thinking that she had hurt Cal before, and last night’s unexpected smack may have put the nail in the coffin. Just as well, she reasoned. She fully believed he’d sided with her family over her, and that wasn’t something she could just shake off.
She padded to the kitchen and fed the kitty, made some toast and coffee and then headed to the shower to get ready for her big day with the girls.
Since Blake had offered Dallas an olive branch after her live-shot screwup the night of Dixie Dickens, Dallas decided to stop and pick up a peace offering of her own—Krispy Kreme doughnuts. She remembered distinctly from her teenaged years that when the girls gathered at Meridee’s, Krispy Kremes were the official snack of the Sassy Belles.
Dallas drove out to Vivi’s plantation house with the items for Blake to fix the roof of the life-size gingerbread house, a little nervous as she tried to focus on the day ahead. But thoughts of Cal plagued her all the way there. Memories of Cal holding her while she told him her deepest, most private secrets, then of running into her brother at the craft store after twenty years of silence between them.
The strangeness of this day had her stomach in knots, too. She almost had to say it out loud to believe it. “I’m going to Vivi’s house, invited by Blake.” That sounded crazier than putting a skank on the Sunday pulpit. But the thing was, secretly she had always wanted this: to be part of their little crowd. When Blake and Vivi had created the Sassy Belles it had been just for them and Rhonda Cartwright. Rhonda had moved away in the early years of high school, but that hadn’t stopped the Belles from carrying on.
Unfortunately, Dallas could never quite figure out how to be a girlfriend, how to have another girl’s back—forever, no matter what. She didn’t know how to quit competing with every single woman she met. Her mother hadn’t exactly been a good role model for any of those things, and by the time she’d moved in with Kitty and Blake, she’d been too angry and scared to really try.
Today, though, she was trying really hard. Finally. And those doughnuts on the seat next to her became her secret weapon.
Blake met her on the steps as she pulled into the driveway of Vivi’s. “Hey, hon, come on in,” she said, welcoming Dallas right away. She knew Blake would be easy to win over after their friendly lunch date, but the bats in her stomach took flight as soon as Vivi came out of the screened door and stood on the porch.
“How are you, Dallas?” she said, though a bit stiffly. She would definitely be the tougher nut to crack.
Vivi was a fun, exciting woman. Loud and opinionated, though only about five foot three. She was covered in freckles, with a beautiful fair complexion. Her green eyes nearly matched the Christmas tree in the front hall, and her ruby-red lips were natural.
Dallas forced down the butterflies and smiled warmly at Vivi. “Oh, I’m fine, thanks. How are y’all today?”
“Good,” Vivi said. “Come on in from the cold and we’ll have some tea or hot cider. Oh, my heavens—look at what she brought, Blake,” Vivi said happily when Dallas offered up the doughnuts. “This is wonderful, thank you.” She took the treat from her and made her way to the kitchen.
Dallas relaxed—but only a little.
She’d always known it was really Vivi who had come up with the plans for the itching powder back during that Miss Warrior River beauty pageant. Who in a million years would have thought that, all this time later, Dallas would be coming out to see Vivi for help—and possibly even friendship.
Dallas stepped all the way into the house, immediately entranced by a truly Deep South Christmas. A twelve-foot tree graced the grand foyer, twinkling with tiny white lights and crimson velvet bows and garland. Old-fashioned was the order of the day, as real greenery draped in swags up the curved staircase, secured with the same red velvet ribbon. The old plantation house looked as if time had stood still there for the past hundred years.
Vivi was wonderful at crafts and had fashioned a wreath made of real magnolia leaves for every door, hanging from matching red velvet ribbon. Single candles lit every window, and her house smelled of baked gingerbread and hot chocolate and warm cider.
Dallas was enveloped in the feelings of home and family, warmth and joy, as she entered. She looked around and took it all in.
“Want some sweet tea?” Vivi asked when Dallas walked into the kitchen.
“Sure, that’d be great,” she answered, sitting down at the huge oak table.
“Well, I, for one, wanna just clear the air,” Vivi said as she sat down next to Blake.
Dallas was sitting across from them. It almost felt as if she was on trial. She swallowed a sip of the tea Vivi had set in front of her and tried to push down her anxiety with it.
“I have to say, I know this feels odd for all of us, what with our history and all. But I am so happy the past is in the past,” Vivi said, squeezing a lemon into her tea.
Dallas was a nervous wreck. She wanted to say so much, but the knot in her stomach was growing. Dallas had been awful herself over the years, doing everything she could to use her media power to bring down Blake and Vivi when the opportunity arose. Sure, they’d been bullies, but Dallas had also been the enemy. But maybe it was time for everyone to grow up.
Dallas knew it was now or never, so she swallowed hard and threw her guarded feelings out there.
“Well, I—” She nearly choked on the words, but she cleared her throat and began again. “I appreciate Blake’s gesture after Dixie Dickens, coming to say those kind words when I was feeling so low. I really do. And like Blake has said, maybe it’s time, with both of you fixin’ to be mothers, that we all just try to get along. I apologize for the years that we didn’t.”
It was the best she could do. She would never be as vulnerable with these women as she’d allowed herself to be with Cal. A huge, groveling, tearful “I’m so sorry I was such a bitch” speech just wasn’t in her—and she wouldn’t be Dallas if it were. What she had said hit the spot, though, and accomplished just what she had hoped; the window to friendship had been cracked open.
“Like I said the other day at the diner, I’m having this baby, and Sonny and I are getting married, and really all of this crap seems suddenly childish. I just wanna be happy now.”
“Me, too,” Vivi added. “And there’s nothing like marriage and family to provide that. Speaking of which, how’s your love life these days, Dallas? Still seeing Dan the Man?” Vivi asked, clearly happy to move the conversation to safer territory—girly gossip.
“Oh, no, that’s so over.” She swigged her tea a bit nervously, unsure if she was ready to confide in these women about Cal and her love problems.
“I think I saw you in Cal Hollingsworth’s car a time or two. Y’all havin’ a little fun on the side?” Vivi asked.
“Um, well...we’re both working on this play together,” Dallas explained. “He gives me a ride here and there.” She smiled as the thought of him crept into her mind. But she had thrown him out. She felt a pang in her stomach, reminding herself of that.
“You know what they say....” Vivi said.
“No. What do they say?”
“Those that play together, stay together.” Vivi raised her eyebrows and shot her a smile.
If only it were so easy. “Well, we’re just friends,” Dallas said, melancholy setting in. Were they even that anymore? She felt that pang again.
Just then, baby Tallulah woke up and let them know it with a mouth much like her outspoken mother, Vivi. She needed to eat. Now. Vivi jumped up from the table as if her fire alarm had gone off—and technically, it had. Tallulah was a little reheaded spitfire. Blake and Dallas followed her to Tallulah’s downstairs crib, which Vivi kept in a nook just off the kitchen for when Vivi was working downstairs. That way she could hear the baby better in the huge old antebellum home.
“Dallas, ever thought about having babies of your own?” Vivi asked as she lifted the precious baby to her chest and the baby stopped crying.
Dallas smiled to herself. Of course she had thought of having a family of her own—but it was always more of a faraway dream, taking place way in the distant future.
Vivi readily handed the baby to her best friend, and Blake looked like a natural holding her, clearly ready for motherhood herself. Dallas was beginning to feel like a third wheel. Blake took the baby back to the kitchen, and she and Dallas sat back down as Vivi got ready to feed Tallulah. The baby was fussy, but Vivi was patient.
“So, Dallas, you never said. Did you ever think of having any children?” Blake brought the point up again.
“Oh, sure. I mean, doesn’t everybody?” Dallas hedged. Just then, the baby kicked her leg out and knocked Vivi’s iced tea straight into Vivi’s lap and all over Tallulah. Vivi jumped up.
“Quick, grab that dish towel,” she said.
Blake jumped up, too, and reached across the table to grab the towel. With both of them tending the spill, before she knew it, Dallas had Tallulah in her arms.
It was a dramatic moment. Not for Vivi or Blake, but for Dallas. Though she was in her early thirties, she had actually never held a baby in her arms. It caught her off guard. She didn’t have a second to think about it. Dallas had gone for so many years not having any real female friends. She had never even been a babysitter.
Up until the play had come into her life, she had never spent any time at all around children of any age. And she had just recently learned that she had a niece and nephew—so she’d never had the chance to know them as babies. But as she stood there cradling Tallulah, she was lost in the tiny girl’s green eyes. When Tallulah stopped crying and looked up at Dallas, something about it felt just right.
Dallas would never forget that moment. To Blake and Vivi, it passed by in a flurry of activity, unnoticed as they cleaned the spill and settled back down at the table. It all took only a few minutes. But in those minutes, something in Dallas had changed. Tallulah had looked her right in the eyes and cooed. Dallas had studied the tiny baby, barely a month old, and smiled at her.
It was a pure and genuine connection. Without pretense or manipulation. Without any ulterior motives. Dallas could not remember a second of the past twenty years that felt like this. She wanted to capture it and put it in a snow globe, to look at and hold forever.
“Oh, my, look, Tallulah likes you, hon. How ’bout that?” Vivi said, reaching back for her baby now that the mess was all cleaned up.
“That is so precious,” Blake said, but she seemed to notice something was up. “Dallas? You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah...she really is just so sweet, that’s all.”
Just then Arthur and Bonita stepped in through the back porch. Bonita was an assistant investigator in the homicide department who worked closely with Sonny. She was a gorgeous, plus-size woman with flawless brown skin and impeccably applied makeup—and her fashion sense was to die for. On the weekends, she loved to help Arthur with his barbeque restaurant, the Moonwinx, which was right on the grounds of Vivi’s plantation.
Arthur was in his early fifties and had lived at the plantation since he was a boy. His mother had worked for Vivi’s family for years before she’d moved back to her hometown of Chicago and had Arthur. After she’d passed away and his father had been sent to Vietnam, Arthur had moved back in with Vivi’s family and had lived there ever since. His dad had died in Vietnam, so the McFaddens and Vivi were the only family Arthur had left.
And Arthur was really the only family Vivi had, too. Her father had died when she was just a child, and her mother had always been sickly and unable to care for Vivi on her own. Arthur, who had been there since Vivi was born and had watched her grow up, had been in his second year in business at the University of Alabama when he’d decided to quit school and come back home to take care of her. He had even walked her down the aisle and given her away at her wedding the previous summer.
He and Vivi had always been close. They tended the rose gardens together, and he and Vivi ran the entire plantation, or what was left of it, together.
“Hey, little mommas,” Arthur said, grinning as he came inside. “Saturday’s a big ole day down there at the BBQ. Man, we got all kinds of customers.”
“Oh, Arthur, that’s wonderful,” Vivi gushed.
Bonita sashayed over to the girls. Confused to see Dallas sitting right there in Vivi’s kitchen, she shot Blake a look with her eyebrows up.
“Well, hey there, ladies. And that baby is a precious little thing. Let me see her,” Bonita said as she reached across to Vivi and swaddled the wide-eyed baby up against her ample bosom.
“Ain’t you just a sight for sore eyes? Hey, little baby girl,” Bonita cooed as she snuggled Tallulah.
“Y’all been busy, you say?” Vivi asked.
“Oh, yeah, we have. Had us a good day for sure,” Arthur said, his amber eyes twinkling.
He and Bonita made a good pair. She was about ten years younger and could stop traffic with her looks alone—and make an arrest like nobody’s business.
Bonita loved her day job, and she was great at it. She was the daughter of Tuskegee professors, so she was smart and financially pretty well off. But Arthur was a perfect Southern gentleman, and Bonita said those were few and far between. After she’d met him, his sweet way and ambitious drive to open the Moonwinx had just charmed her to pieces. She’d helped him open the place last summer. They had been together for about six months now, and they were looking pretty cozy.
Because of Arthur and Vivi’s close relationship, Vivi immediately treated Bonita like family. Bonita was just part of the fabric of daily life out at the McFadden Plantation, now that she was on Arthur’s arm.
“Y’all still countin’ on us for supper?” Bonita asked.
“Yep. Everybody’s comin’ tonight. We’re gonna have us a Christmas shindig,” Vivi said. “Hey, Dallas, would you like to stay for supper? We’d love for you to join us,” Vivi asked.
Dallas couldn’t very well say no to a meal invitation, which was considered the height of rudeness in the South. Besides, it sure beat going home and staring at the phone, thinking about Cal. But she was stunned that Vivi had so easily and happily, it seemed, invited her.
“Sure, thanks so much. I’d love to stay, if you’re sure it won’t be too much trouble,” Dallas said.
“No trouble at all. Lewis is bringing Cal, so that’ll round it out perfectly,” Vivi said.
Dallas froze, her stomach sinking. She knew she’d heard Vivi right. She also knew she couldn’t say anything to argue it. And now she had already confirmed, so it wasn’t as if she could say, Oh, by the way, I just remembered there’s a toilet I have to clean. Nope, she was stuck as Cal’s dinner date—make that surprise dinner date.
“Alrighty, looks like we’re all set, then. Bonita and I’ll get the dinner together from the restaurant, and, Miss Vivi, we still gonna have your good ole peach cobbler?”
“Yes, siree, it’s my specialty. Well, borrowed from Miss Meridee, of course.
”
“Dallas, honey, you’re in for a real treat. Ain’t nothin’ like suppertime out here at Vivi’s,” Bonita said as she kissed baby Tallulah on the forehead before giving her back to her mother. “That baby is the spittin’ image of her momma,” Bonita chirped.
“Oh, I can’t wait,” Dallas said with forced enthusiasm. “Definitely sounds like a treat for sure.”
“Okay, y’all, we got us a theater project to work on this afternoon, so let’s get ’er goin’.” Vivi stood with Tallulah and was headed back to the little nursery off the butler’s pantry when Tallulah started crying again.
“Oh, precious, it’s okay.” Vivi held her, bouncing, and walked back toward the kitchen. She stopped right in front of the television where the rebroadcast of the Christmas parade was being shown. Dallas’s voice was giving the play-by-play commentary when suddenly Tallulah became quiet. Vivi moved closer to the TV. The baby listened, looking around.
“Dallas! Looks like she loves the parade, how ’bout that?” Vivi said, continuing to bounce.
Tallulah started to coo, and she actually smiled. Dallas was entertaining, even to a baby.
“Oh, my goodness, look y’all! Tallulah’s grinnin’,” Blake said, excited. Then she laughed. “I think it’s the first time I’ve seen her really smile, Vivi! Keep her there and let me grab the camera.”
Blake ran into the adjoining dining room and came waddling back as fast as she could and snapped a picture of the happy redheaded baby.
“Dallas, I think Miss Tallulah really likes you,” Vivi said, looking at Dallas.
“Maybe she recognizes my voice from a few minutes ago, or just thinks the parade is funny.” It still seemed strange to her that she could have any sort of real connection with a baby.
“No, she was pretty calm when you were holding her, too.” Vivi smiled at Dallas as she walked back past her to put the baby in her crib.
Sleigh Belles Page 19