“I was seeing him. I was sleeping with him. I’m not seeing him anymore, Marty. It’s over. I swear it is.”
“I don’t believe you. First time he winks, you’ll fall over backward and drag him down on top of you. I’m going to feed him poison and go to his funeral to be sure that he’s really dead. That’s the only way you’ll ever be rid of him. You can mourn and then finally move on.”
“You are a good friend. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’d shoot him for me! But I really am over him. That night with the shotgun was the last time he’s been here. I couldn’t have made it through the horrible times without y’all. I can’t explain but I really, truly am over Andy. He can do whatever he wants. I don’t give a shit. Now help me decide what to wear and please don’t throw me out of the house.”
Marty poked her on the arm. “You know something else. You’ve got another secret and you haven’t told me. I can see a gleam in your eye. Do you have a boyfriend? That’s why you are over Andy, isn’t it? You’ve got a new lover!”
Trixie cocked her head to one side. “Sorry, darlin’, I don’t have a new boyfriend and if I did have a secret, it wouldn’t be something like not voting for you.”
Marty’s eyes widened. “Then what is it?”
Trixie giggled. “I do not have another secret, I promise. You really would poison Andy, wouldn’t you?”
“Damn straight!” Marty stuck out her little finger and they did a pinky-promise like two little girls.
“Now do I get a pretty card like Cathy?”
“Maybe in a couple of days. What do you want your pretty card to say, Marty?”
“Men and catastrophes come and go. Girlfriends are forever,” she said.
“And Jack. Don’t forget that Jack is our friend too, even if he is a man.”
“Good friends are forever then,” Marty said. “That’s what I want it to say. Now let’s go to the dance. I’ve already spotted a new cowboy and he’s going to dance with me until the Jubilee shuts down.”
Chapter 22
Cathy really meant to turn her cell phone off, but in the aftermath of an all-day buffet at Clawdy’s, rushing to the Rib Joint to help John close up, and then a wonderful hour of passionate sex, she had fallen asleep. When it rang the next morning at eight o’clock, she thought the noise was the alarm. She reached across John’s body and slapped the off button on top of the clock. It rang again. She figured she’d hit the snooze button so she slapped the clock one more time. On the third ring, she realized it was her phone, rolled over, and grabbed it from the nightstand on her side of the bed.
“Hello,” she said groggily.
“Good morning!” a voice that sounded vaguely familiar chirped. “I’m calling about the wedding dress you have posted in the Denison newspaper. My boyfriend proposed last night and we’re getting married in three weeks and I’d love to see this dress. The picture shows it to be very basic, but my aunt and I can dress it up with some satin flowers, and we’re making our own detachable train with a big J embroidered in seed pearls on the train inside a heart.”
Cathy didn’t need a play-by-play of the woman’s whole life. She just wanted to sell the dang dress. “I live south of Sherman, Texas. How do you want to take care of payment and seeing it?”
“I live in the same area. Could we meet in the Walmart parking lot? The weatherman says it could rain so if you could come right away, that would be very nice.”
Cathy dropped the phone and scrambled to retrieve it before her buyer thought she’d hung up on her. She was finally awake enough to recognize Anna Ruth’s voice. Now what did she do? J meant that Andy Johnson had proposed to her. She’d seen them flirting like teenagers at the street dance, but surely Anna Ruth wasn’t that crazy. Andy’s track record had proven that he wasn’t capable of “forsaking all others.”
“What time?” Cathy asked.
“In an hour? I can’t wait to get to work on it.”
“I’ll be there.”
“How will I recognize you?”
“I’ll be the one standing beside my car holding up a wedding dress,” Cathy said quickly and hung up.
She dressed and left John sleeping soundly. Fifteen minutes later, she tiptoed upstairs, rapped gently on Trixie’s door, and whispered her name. When no one answered, she opened it a crack and looked inside. Trixie threw a pillow at the door and pulled the covers up over her head.
Cathy looked over and saw Marty’s door open so she poked her head inside and whispered, “Hey, are you awake?”
Marty growled.
Cathy went into her room and sat down on the edge of the bed. No way was she selling that dress to Anna Ruth before talking to either Trixie or Marty.
Trixie made her way to Cathy’s bed. She crawled up into the middle of it and sat cross-legged. “This had better be good for you to wake me up this early on Sunday morning. It’s too early to even get up for church.”
“I sold the wedding dress,” Cathy said quickly.
“Well, hot damn. Where’s it going?” Trixie came alive.
“Probably to the Cadillac Baptist Church and I’m ninety-nine point nine percent sure that Anna Ruth is the buyer and Andy is the groom. Is that going to be a problem? She didn’t recognize my voice when she called so I can just not show up at the Walmart parking lot.”
“Oh, yes, you will show up. I don’t care if she buys it. I don’t care if she’s marrying Andy. I’ll even go to the wedding with bells on my toes. Is that all?”
Cathy nodded.
Marty poked her head in the door. “What’s going on?”
“Cathy sold the wedding dress to Anna Ruth, who is going to marry Andy.”
“I’ll be damned.” Marty joined them on the bed. “I’ll even help carry it out to your car and then I’m going back to bed.”
It took all three of them to put the dress inside the car. Marty and Trixie both stood on the porch in their pajamas and waved as she drove away from Clawdy’s. She parked on the outer fringes of the lot, not far from the gas pumps, and waited until she saw Anna Ruth’s little red car whip in off the highway. She held up a hand.
Anna Ruth pulled in beside her and rolled down her window.
“Do you need help? Has that old car finally gone its last mile? I can call someone or come back, but right now I’m looking for a woman holding up a wedding dress. I shouldn’t even offer the way your aunt acted at the Jubilee yesterday but I’m happy. Andy proposed last night and we’re getting married in three weeks. He’s gotten a job with the Bells Police Department and we are moving since I’m already teaching there and it’s going to be so wonderful and I don’t even have to give up the club.” True Anna Ruth style, she rambled on and on.
Cathy reached inside the car and held up the wedding dress.
“Oh!” Anna Ruth gasped.
“What do we do now?” Cathy asked.
“I love it, but I can’t. Who’s seen it?”
“Trixie, Marty, Darla Jean, and Aunt Agnes.”
“It’ll be six inches too long, but Aunt Annabel and I figured we’d use what we cut off to make flowers with little satin leaves for the train. And she’s already got the train cut out. It’s going to fasten onto the back of the dress with hook and eyes with the same satin as the flower leaves and… what am I going to do?”
“Your call,” Cathy said.
“I never did love Ethan, you know. I just thought I did. It’s always been Andy, but I don’t know about wearing a dress that was bought for Ethan’s bride. Somehow it doesn’t seem right.”
“Okay.” Cathy opened the car door to put it in the backseat.
“Wait! I’ll take it. No one will even recognize it when we get done dressing it up.”
The check she handed Cathy was made out for the exact amount she’d listed it for. At least she didn’t try to negotiate a cheaper price.
&
nbsp; “But you have to promise me something,” she said.
It was kind of late to be asking for promises after she had the dress and Cathy already put the check in her purse.
“You got to promise not to tell everyone. I don’t want Violet to know for sure. She’d be a real pain about it,” Anna Ruth said.
“I promise.”
“Thank you, Cathy! Like they say in the movies, this never happened. Oh, and you’ll be getting your invitation for you and one guest in the mail next week. Club is giving us a shower. I don’t suppose you’ll want to come to it under the circumstances, but please come to the wedding. You do know that Violet is livid about that new boyfriend of yours, though, so be prepared.”
“Ain’t that nice.” Cathy smiled sweetly.
Anna Ruth carefully draped the dress over the passenger seat in her car and waved out the driver’s window as she drove off.
Cathy drove straight to McDonald’s, went inside, and ordered a cup of coffee. She carried it to a booth by the window. The first sip was hot enough to burn and it hurt so she wasn’t dreaming. She’d just sold the dress to Anna Ruth who was really marrying Andy in three weeks. That made it the first Saturday in December, the very day she was supposed to have married Ethan.
All of Cadillac would be busy either with preparations for Andy’s leaving the force, the wedding, or at least the gossip. Things couldn’t get any crazier.
Her phone rang. She checked the ID before she answered and said, “You are supposed to be asleep.”
Trixie giggled. “Andy just called Jack and he called me so he could be the first to tell me that Andy is marrying Anna Ruth. Jack is going to step up into Andy’s job. Did she buy the dress?”
“Oh, yeah, but believe me, when she gets done with it, you’d never know it was the one I bought. And we’re sworn to secrecy about it. If Agnes finds out, she’ll taunt Violet, and even though Anna Ruth is a pain in my ass and I’m still mad at Andy, I don’t want to pop her bubble on her wedding day. Andy can have that job all on his own and I’m real glad that she’ll be in Bells when it happens so she won’t come whining to me. That’s not very nice, is it?” Cathy asked.
“I can’t believe you said ass. And darlin’, you don’t have to be nice all the time.”
* * *
Andy had one more bridge to cross before he moved to the other side of the county and went to work in Bells as Chief of Police. Whether he burned the bridge or rebuilt it was totally up to Trixie. But it had to be done on Monday morning before Anna Ruth got involved with the wedding preparations. After that it would be impossible to bring the wedding train to a screeching halt and jump off.
Cathy was working the tables in the dining room at Clawdy’s and when he sat down at a table, she scowled. Thank God it was Cathy and not Marty. She’d have done more than give him dirty looks. He wiped sweat from his face with a handkerchief. So what if it was fifty degrees outside? His life was on the line here.
“I’d like to talk to Trixie,” he said.
“No. Go away,” Cathy said.
“Trixie,” he raised his voice. “I need to talk to you!”
She came from the other room and popped her hands on her hips. “What do you want?”
“Can we talk in private?”
“Trixie.” Cathy lowered her chin.
“I’ll be fine. I promise.”
“Five minutes and then Marty and I are both intervening.”
“Won’t take that long,” Trixie said.
She sat down at the table.
Andy reached across and laid his hands on hers. “I asked Anna Ruth to marry me last night.”
She jerked her hands free and put them in her lap. “Congratulations. I heard about it first thing this morning.”
“I took a job in Bells this past week.”
“Congratulations on that too. Why are you here?”
“I’m moving. I’m starting all over and I’d rather it be with you. We could go to Bells. We could start again, and this time we could get it right.”
“Why did you ask Anna Ruth to marry you?”
“I want a wife. I like being married. I like coming home to a woman in the house. But after I asked her, I realized I want that wife to be you.”
“Go upstairs and look at my room. I haven’t changed.”
“Neither have I, but we made it work those first years. I can undo this thing with Anna Ruth. It was just a thing of the moment. She’ll be mad but it can be done.”
“The answer is no and won’t ever change, Andy. I’m moving on and I’m happy. I’d never trust you. And besides, Anna Ruth bought a wedding dress yesterday morning. I think it’s too late to back out, Andy, but I do feel sorry for her.”
“I’ll marry you again and swear on the Bible that I’ll be faithful. We can fly down to Cancun for a week. You can give your part of Clawdy’s back to Marty and Cathy. I won’t even fuss about the money you took out of our savings to buy a partnership in a café,” he said.
“You did marry me and you swore before God that you would be faithful and you weren’t. Cancun wouldn’t make any difference. And the truth is, Andy, you aren’t worth giving up Clawdy’s for. Go marry Anna Ruth. She might not kill you the next time you cheat. I would.”
“When I walk out the door the offer is off the table. Think about the sex, Trix.”
“Don’t let the door hit you in the ass,” she said.
He stormed outside, slamming the front door behind him.
Cathy patted her on the shoulder as she walked past. “I heard every word. Lord, what a mess.”
“We are going to be all right.” Trixie smiled.
Agnes was in the kitchen when Trixie got back. She looked up with a scowl on her face and said, “What the hell was he doing here?”
“I should have let you shoot him that night. He came to give me one more chance,” Trixie said.
“And what did you tell him?”
“I told him he was out of chances.”
“What about shooting him?” Cathy asked.
“I wasn’t seeing things. She had Andy up there in her bedroom,” Agnes tattled.
“But it’s over now, isn’t it?” Cathy frowned.
“You heard what I told him,” Trixie said. “I meant every word.”
Marty threw six pieces of bacon on the grill. “For real?”
“He can give all the rest of the chances he’s got in his pocket to Anna Ruth. I’m done with him.”
Marty went back to her job. “Good!”
Chapter 23
Agnes loved Saturday morning cartoons. Not those new ones with robots and machines that transformed from cars into monsters. No, she liked the old ones with Sylvester and Tweety Bird and Wile E. Coyote. Those were the real McCoys. She’d gotten up early because that’s when the good ones came on. She’d made her Saturday morning hot chocolate and saved back a bowl of peach cobbler from the day before for breakfast. When a woman got past seventy, she didn’t pay much attention to all the folderol about six servings of vegetables and fruits. She just took her liquid fiber every night and ate what she pleased.
Wile E. Coyote was about to pluck the roadrunner’s tail feathers when the doorbell rang. No one ever came to Agnes’s house on Saturday morning. Pretty often on Thursday, Darla Jean popped by to ask if she’d like to go see Betty and the girls, but never on the weekends. She grumbled all the way across the living room to the door.
“Good God, Lanita, what happened to you? Did you have a wreck? I didn’t hear a thing but I was watching television.” Agnes stepped out and looked up the street and down the street but she didn’t see a vehicle anywhere.
Lanita was married to Jim Washington, a high-powered real estate agent in Denison. He was originally from Cadillac and had brought Lanita home with him when he retired from the Army. She was a small, dark-haired woman
in her early thirties and a trophy wife for Jim who was in his mid-fifties. The two of them attended church in Cadillac every Sunday and sat on the far end of Agnes’s pew.
“Can I come inside?” Her voice carried a soft southern accent.
Agnes backed up and motioned her into the house.
“Have a seat. You had breakfast? I’ll share my cobbler.”
Lanita sat down on the edge of a chair. “I’m not hungry. Jim is in Vegas for a conference. He’ll be back this afternoon. I need help and I have no idea where to turn. I left him once and went to my friend’s place in Arkansas. He found me and it was awful, but I can’t take much more. They’re getting suspicious at both the Sherman and the Denison hospitals in their emergency rooms. Last time the doctor kept asking questions. It made things worse when we got home and he said next time he’ll kill me.”
She pulled off a denim jacket and Agnes inhaled sharply. “What he use? A whip?”
“Fists and a belt. I want you to help me die.”
Agnes really sucked air that time. “Ain’t no sense in that, girl. I got a friend just down the street that can help take care of this thing.”
“I just meant that I was going to stage a suicide and I need you to pick me up and give me a ride to the bus station. I’ll get a plane ticket somewhere.”
“That will leave a paper trail. Way Darla Jean does it, you are a new person and that man will never find you.”
“You trust her?” Lanita asked.
Agnes didn’t hesitate a second. “I’d trust her with my life, but don’t tell her I said it. Now how were we going to kill you?”
“I was going to take his boat out on Lake Texoma and blow it up. I was going to stop at the gas station and the marina and any other place I could so people can see me with it. Then I planned to slip over the side and swim to shore where you’d pick me up while it burned. I saw it on a television show.”
“It’s too damn cold to be swimming to shore. You’ll catch pneumonia and really die. Did the man in the movie find her?” Agnes asked.
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