Dallas moved over to be with the other women. She and Blake watched Vivi slowly finger through her father’s things, holding them as if they were buried treasures in her gently freckled hands.
“Daddy left me so early. I wish I had known him a little longer.”
She picked up an old photograph and studied it. It showed Vivi sitting in her dad’s lap holding a huge stick of cotton candy. The wiry red curls dancing atop her head made her look like Little Orphan Annie. They were sitting in front of a Ferris wheel, the neon colors glowing behind them. Dallas could tell the photo was taken at the West Alabama Fair, a magical place when you were a kid in Tuscaloosa.
Vivi laid the photo back down in a little box, then she opened the drawers and pulled out another box.
“I’ve never seen this one before,” she said. She sat down on the bare floor to spread out the box’s contents.
Dallas and Blake sat down beside her. Vivi pulled out her father’s pipe and smelled it. His wallet was in the box, too, still holding her baby pictures. There was a ring she didn’t know anything about and also an old envelope that was wrapped with a leather string tied in a knot.
“What is this?” Vivi asked.
“Open it up and let’s see,” Dallas prodded, her curiosity getting the better of her.
Vivi untied the knot, and a collection of yellow parched papers fell into her lap.
“This is Daddy’s will, I think,” Vivi said after a cursory glance. “I’ve never seen it before.” She stilled herself as she read her father’s last wishes.
As she rustled through the papers, Blake, being a wills and estates attorney, couldn’t help herself, so she picked some of the papers up, too. Dallas wasn’t exactly timid, and, at the risk of looking nosy, the reporter in her took over. It was like a complete investigative team looking for clues into a man’s life.
Suddenly Vivi stopped cold and inhaled sharply.
“Oh, my good God in heaven. Blake! Please tell me, am I readin’ this right?” Vivi’s hand trembled as Blake took the page from her and read it.
“‘And as for my land and home,’” Blake read aloud, “‘and all the surrounding acreage, I leave it all, as is, to my nephew, Arthur Perkins.’” She read it again. “My nephew, Arthur Perkins.” She lifted her eyes from the page to look at Vivi, who seemed as though she’d had the wind knocked out of her.
Within a few lines of text, Vivi had learned in the flash of a second that Arthur, her longtime friend, was really her blood cousin. Not only that, but he also owned the entire plantation that she had always called home. And he had for over twenty years.
Suffice it to say, angel wings were not in the near future. At least not the kind you could make.
37
The women sat in total silence. What Vivi had just found out could and would change her life. She’d thought the whole place still belonged to her mother, who was still alive and staying in the fancy retirement home in town, Splendor Acres. They had a financial adviser who paid all the taxes on the home, and Vivi had always thought she would inherit the home and property after her mother died.
But this discovery would change every single thing she knew to be true about her life and her relationship with Arthur.
“Surely Arthur must know about this,” Vivi said, tears now spilling down her cheeks. “They would have to have told him about it after my father died. How could he keep it from me all these years? It’s like he’s been lying to me. How can we go on now that I know he hid this from me my whole life? How could I ever forgive him?”
“You know Arthur, Vivi. I’m sure there’s a good reason he never said anything. You have to go talk to him. Now. It’s best to get it out in the open.” Blake held Vivi as she tried to convince her.
Dallas sat still, listening to the two of them—and watching Vivi about to throw away her most important family connection, next to Lewis and the baby, right out the window.
“I can’t, Blake, I’m too upset,” Vivi sobbed. “I have never, ever been mad at Arthur. Not even once. I am hurt to the bone. But he’s been hiding the truth from me all along. He owns this whole place and—and he’s my own cousin and he didn’t think I should know! Why? Did he think I couldn’t take it?”
“Maybe he was protecting you,” Dallas offered.
“From what? I needed to know this, don’t y’all think?”
“Oh, Vivi, you have to go to him right away. You don’t have a choice. All this pain is just gonna snowball on you and before you know it, you won’t even be the same person,” Dallas explained, talking from experience.
“She’s right, Vivi,” Blake said, rubbing Vivi’s back.
“No. I just can’t right now. I’m so mad at him for keeping this from me. He was the most important person in this world to me, till Lewis and the baby came along, and still, I love him like an older brother. But now? Keeping this from me all these years is such a betrayal. I can’t even begin to forgive him for this.”
“Vivi, listen to me, you have to talk to Arthur and make this right. I know you’re mad, but you know Arthur’s heart. He would never do anything to hurt you,” Dallas said, her own pain taking over the moment. “If you don’t, you’ll be ruining your own life. Resentment is a poisonous thing. It will spread through your whole life and change you from the inside out. You won’t be the same wife to Lewis, the same friend to Blake, and you especially won’t be the same mother to Tallulah. That baby deserves to have her real mother, not the shell that will be left after all that anger destroys you.” It had never been so clear to Dallas before, but maybe she just needed to see the situation from the outside to understand exactly what she needed to do.
Blake sat with her mouth open. “I couldn’t have said it better myself. Now, go on down to see Arthur. We’ll go with you for support.”
Vivi sniffed and wiped her nose with her long cardigan. “I guess there was always the little hint of this hangin’ overhead,” she said.
“Whatdya mean?” Blake asked her.
“Daddy’s brother, my uncle Henry, was killed in Vietnam, too—just like Arthur’s daddy. I guess this means that...Uncle Henry must have been Arthur’s dad.”
The boys had gone into the living room and were watching some game on TV. Vivi decided not to upset the entire apple cart till she had talked to Arthur herself, so the three of them headed down to the side yard without disturbing them. It was dark and freezing outside, a clear night with a trillion stars shining overhead. As they neared the Moonwinx, they could hear Arthur and Bonita laughing.
“How do I even begin this conversation? ‘Oh, by the way Arthur, I just learned you’re actually my cousin and you own my plantation...?’ That’s not gonna cut it.”
“No, just show him those papers in your hand and see where it goes from there.” Blake squeezed Vivi’s hand, and Dallas took the other. And to Dallas’s surprise, nothing felt the least bit strange about that.
All three of them stood at the closed door to the Moonwinx. Vivi sucked in a deep breath and knocked, in case Arthur and Bonita were playing more than cards. Vivi was trembling.
“Hey, what are y’all doin’ here? Lawd, y’all gonna freeze out here—not a one of ya with a coat. Get on in here.” Arthur swung open the little screened door, and they all went inside the little restaurant. The restaurant was mostly for pick-up and take-out orders, so there wasn’t much seating, but they pulled up a few spare chairs around a table.
“What do I owe the honor of this here visit?” Arthur asked, smiling at them all. Vivi instantly teared up and shoved the yellowed papers under his nose.
Arthur looked down, and Bonita handed him his little gold-framed reading glasses. He sat quiet for a second, but they could tell he knew right away what he was looking at. Bonita got up and stood behind him to read over his shoulder. Arthur didn’t say a word. Vivi waited, her breath chop
py and measured.
“Tell me about that if you can, please, Arthur.” She sniffed. “I need to know.”
“Oh, Vivi, come ’mere to me, baby girl.” He reached over, and they embraced. “I never, ever meant to hurt you.”
“Well, it’s too late for that. I just don’t understand. Why would you keep this from me?”
Bonita sat back down next to Arthur, her mouth still not closed.
“I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I was afraid,” he said.
“Afraid of what, for heaven’s sakes? Me?”
“I didn’t want anything to ever change ’round here. I loved it all the way it was. It was all just a piece a paper to me. I don’t need all this,” he said, gesturing to not only the restaurant but the land around them. “You were too young to be granted the ownership in name, and your momma was too sick to take it on. Your daddy left it to me and it was understood, though it ain’t there in writing, that I would make sure it belonged to you after your momma dies. Nobody would make a fuss about it if I just gave it to ya. And that’s what I was plannin’ on doin.”
“Arthur, I’m not even carin’ one little bit about all this property. What I’m talkin’ about is that all these years you knew we were blood kin. I needed to know that. I don’t have any blood relatives at all besides Momma, and she doesn’t even recognize me anymore. I had you all this time and never knew.”
“Baby girl, this don’t change nuthun’. Look at us. We always been family.” He smiled and a tear fell down his cheek. “I was afraid if I showed you this, somethin’ would change, and nuthin’ round here ever needed changin’. I love you like you’re my baby sister, and no little old blood test or piece of paper gonna make me love you any more than I already do. You’re my family, Vivi, blood or not. It don’t make no difference.”
The relief and happiness on Vivi’s face was obvious. “I love you, too, Arthur.” She melted into his embrace.
Bonita had tears streaming down her round cheeks, and Dallas and Blake sat next to Vivi wiping their eyes, too. The emotions were palpable in every corner of the little restaurant.
Dallas’s heart and mind were suddenly the clearest they had ever been in her whole entire life.
“Will y’all excuse me? I got some of my own business to take care of.”
38
Dallas couldn’t get back up to the main house fast enough. She ran with her arms folded and her head down, fighting the December cold. All she could think of was Cal, and the words she had said to Vivi were replaying on a loop in her head. All that talk of forgiveness. Cal was right. He had been right about everything, and she needed to find him and tell him right away. To tell him how sorry she was.
She reached the front porch and dashed inside, going from room to room, looking for Cal. Not in the kitchen, or the front hall; she called out for him, her desperation mounting.
“In here,” he shouted from the cozy living room where he was parked in front of the big screen with Sonny and Lewis, a Budweiser in hand.
She let out her breath as soon as she reached the doorway to the room. It was a sigh of relief. She looked at him sitting on the couch next to Sonny, his long legs outstretched in front of him, crossed at the ankles over the cushioned ottoman. He looked so handsome to her, his dark golden hair, messy and out of place. He was wearing blue jeans and a dark pine-green sweater. He looked relaxed as he sat there with all the men watching a football game. At that moment everything clicked, and for the first time she truly knew she was in love with him. For the first time, she could finally admit that to herself.
“Cal, can I talk to you, please?”
“Uh-oh, big guy’s in trouble,” Lewis said, grinning.
“Oh, yeah, here it comes, you can see it,” Sonny added.
Cal got up, slightly confused, but made his way over to Dallas. She took him into the kitchen and sat down with him at the big oak table. The lights were low; only a small lamp illuminated the room from a corner near the fridge. Dallas sat close to him. She hadn’t even questioned how he might feel until just now. Maybe he wouldn’t even want her back. Maybe he thought she was too rigid, and he had been wrong about her. Dallas only knew that she was sorry and that he was right: she had a definite problem with forgiveness. But that was about to change.
She swallowed hard and looked deeply into those gorgeous gray-green eyes.
“Cal, I need to say something, and I just need you to listen.” She paused and smiled a nervous smile.
“Okay...” he said.
“I want to say that...I’m really, really sorry for all the things I said the other night. I never meant to hurt you. I didn’t want you to leave.”
“Well, you need an Oscar, then, ’cause you sure threw me out like you wanted me to go. Asking someone to leave when you really want them to stay? That’s kinda confusing, you know,” Cal said with a small smile, his sarcasm breaking the ice a little.
“I know it. I’m so sorry. I’m really sorry,” she said.
“Okay. I understand.” He let out a breath and looked at her sweetly. “I know you have been under a huge strain and with your mom and brother and all...”
“Well, I just wanted to say I was wrong.”
“Wow. Do I need to call the TV station and get this on the ten o’clock?”
“Okay, stop it. I mean it. I was wrong.”
“About what?
“All those things you said at the theater. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. You said I had a problem with forgiveness, and I’ve decided that you may have been right.” She cleared her throat, hoping he would just stop talking and kiss her.
“Oh, does that mean I’m forgiven?”
“Yes! Come on, Cal. I...well, I just wanted you to know how I felt.” She began to think he wasn’t going to just jump up and hug her, like she wanted, and she wondered what else she’d have to do to convince him. But suddenly he leaned over and kissed her, holding her head close to him with one hand, his other hand resting on her cheek. He kissed her long and passionately, slipping his hands under the nape of her neck and under her hair.
“Oh, Cal, I’ve missed you so much. I was so crazy to push you away.”
“I’ve missed you, too, but it’s okay now. You’re here with me, and it’s okay.”
She continued to kiss him, her hungry mouth open and lusting for him. She crawled her hands through his thick, gorgeous hair. “Cal, I will never send you away again. I promise. I promise.”
Just then Sonny walked into the kitchen for a fresh beer.
“Lord, you two. Get a room,” he said, opening the fridge that was right next to them. He shot a conspiratorial grin at Cal. “Hey, Dallas, seen my girl anywhere?”
“Yeah, she and Vivi are over visiting Arthur.”
“So I guess I’ll just have to wait my turn for the make-out sessions.” He winked at Cal and headed back to the big TV.
“I have my car here,” Dallas said. “Let me take you home.”
“You sure you wanna take me home?”
“I remember one night you were going to show me your man lair before we got interrupted....”
“You just let me say goodbye, and I’ll meet you at the car.”
“Okay, me, too.”
“What were y’all doin out at Arthur’s, by the way?” he asked as he got up, dropping his hand down and squeezing her butt on the way out of the kitchen.
“I’ll fill you in while we drive. It’s a long story.”
Dallas felt as if a weight had been lifted. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy—this free. She felt open and truthful. True to herself. Finally.
Now, she really needed to show Cal just how sorry she was.
39
“Wow, that is amazing,” Cal said once Dallas had told him
the whole story of Vivi and Arthur. “But now it all makes sense.”
“I know, and it has a fairy-tale ending, too, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. I know how you like the whole ‘happily ever after’ thing, don’t ya?”
“Well, of course I do. Especially the part where the prince kisses the princess awake.”
“We’ll just have to see if we can work that in for you.” He glanced over and winked at her.
Dallas let Cal drive her car to his house. They had said their goodbyes, and she’d loaded up the gingerbread roof that Blake had fixed into the trunk. As they drove, she reached over and settled her hand onto his thigh, as if she was claiming him. He was hers and that felt right. She had admitted her mistakes and apologized—everything seemed to be falling into place. Except she couldn’t bring herself to tell him she loved him. She’d gone into the kitchen with the intention of telling him, but something had made her hesitate.
Dallas felt differently about Cal than any man she had ever been with. Yes, she’d told her other husbands she’d loved them, but that had been more frivolous—expected. It certainly hadn’t been deep or real. And she had always been overly careful not to get too emotional, not to let them inside. But then Cal came along, and he was the very first man—the very first person—in her whole life since her family split up who she had let completely in, penetrating the walls until nothing was between them. Only truth.
“Oh, by the way, I’ve been meaning to tell you about this, but with you not talking to me and all....” He flashed a teasing smile. “I was able to trace those emails. Just as I suspected, they aren’t coming from Callahan Enterprises.”
Wrapped up in her own little dream world, Dallas had almost forgotten all about the emails and the missing Baby Jesus case. “Oh, yeah? Where are they coming from, then?” Dallas asked.
“They’re coming from a frat house on campus. The Wi-Fi this hacker’s using is addressed right at the fraternity—they weren’t very careful about it. I’ve got a little more digging to do, but I’ll get to the bottom of it in the next couple of days.”
Sleigh Belles Page 21