Bea (12 page)

“The road is clear?”

“Yes. I’m taking you home.”

He left the tent quickly and began to dismantle the camp.

Bea made quick work of dressing. She would clean the mud off later. She was going home, home to Glory Ethel and Jedidiah and Samuel and Molly, home to the Victorian house in Florence, Alabama, a house with wide rooms and high ceilings and sweet-smelling sheets, a house with a brass bed instead of a sleeping bag... a house without Russ Hammond.

Her fingers stilled on her buttons. Home without Russ? A sadness weighed down on her, and her steps dragged as she left the tent.

“I’m ready.”

Even her voice reflected her sadness. She hoped he thought she was just tired.

“Good. The sooner we leave the mountain, the better.”

That made her sad, too, that he seemed eager to get rid of her. She remembered how they had sat in the truck, cozy and dry with the rain beating the windows, how they had laughed and joked. She remembered how she had felt, waking up in his arms, warm and contented, at peace with the world.

She felt almost as if she were
leaving
home instead of going home.
How silly.

As he dismantled the tent, she took one last look at the mountain, and then she climbed into the truck.

Russ started the vehicle without much coaxing, and soon they were on the road again, riding side by side, the wind whistling around the ill-fitting windows and Willie Nelson wailing in their ears.

Bea hardly noticed the music. She hardly noticed anything except the set of Russ’s jaw and the intense way he drove, as if he couldn’t wait to be rid of her. She tried to start a conversation, but his reply was so curt she decided to keep silent.

Within two hours they were off the mountain and on the superhighway.

Thank God,
Bea finally got an iPhone signal. She pulled up her email.

From: Molly

To: Bea, Catherine, Clemmie, Belinda, Joanna, Janet

Re: Where
ARE
you?

OMG, everybody’s going crazy here! Where are you Bea? I’ve called you a million times, and it all went to voice mail! Glory Ethel has called every hospital between here and Dallas and Daddy has the highway patrol out looking for your car. OMG, I’m about to DIE!

Molly

From: Janet

To: Bea, Molly, Belinda, Joanna, Clemmie, Catherine

Re: Don’t panic

I’m sure there is a logical explanation. Still, Bea, a woman traveling alone is
vulnerable.
I hope you carried pepper spray. Knowing you, you’ve probably packed one of those rawhide bullwhips! Wherever you are, I hope you’re kicking ass!

Janet

From: Catherine

To: Bea, Molly, Belinda, Joanna, Clemmie, Janet

Re: Trying to remain positive

As Bea herself would say,
everybody just chill.
Besides, Bea has some kind of belt in karate. Maybe even a black belt! Don’t you remember that time we were all on that riverboat cruise down here and some drunken old fool tried to grope Molly? Bea had him up against the railing before he knew what hit him. She threatened to throw him in the river, and Janet, I think you threatened to cut out his liver with dull knife. Joanna kicked the shit out of his shins and I thought Belinda was going to pull every hair out of his head. Bea can take care of herself.

Still,
where are you, Bea!!!!

Cat

From: Clemmie

To: Bea, Joanna, Molly, Janet, Belinda, Catherine

Re: Scared

I know we’re all independent women who can take care of ourselves, but I’m scared. What if something awful has happened to Bea? I’d never get over it.

Clemmie

From: Belinda

To: Bea, Joanna, Molly, Janet, Clemmie, Catherine

Re: NOTHING AWFUL

Nothing awful has happened to Bea, Clemmie! Stop talking like that. You’re a Dixie Virgin, and we always keep a positive attitude. I prefer to think that Bea has found somebody as wonderful as Reeve and is too busy having a good time to email.

Say it’s so, Bea!

Belinda

From: Joanna

To: Bea, Belinda, Molly, Janet, Clemmie, Catherine

Re: LOVE

Belinda’s right! OF COURSE, Bea’s found Mr. Right! You know what they say: when the horse throws you, you get BACK IN THE SADDLE!!! That’s what I do!

Bea, you’d better be in the saddle, or I’m going to get on a plane come straight home! And I don’t care what Kirk and the nuns say!

Joanna

From: Janet

To: Joanna, Belinda, Bea, Molly, Clemmie, Catherine

Re: The saddle

Joanna, you’d better not be
in
the saddle.
Have you forgotten Rule Four! It worked for Belinda and Molly and me, and by George, it will work for the rest of you! We are
special,
and don’t you forget that!

Bea, do you hear me?

Janet

From: Bea

To: Janet, Molly, Joanna, Catherine, Clemmie, Belinda

Re: Earth to the Dixie Virgins

Hello! I’m OK! I’m not in the saddle and not likely to get there considering present company. My car died and had to be left behind in this
awful
little town in Arkansas. Then I got rescued by the
worst man in the world
!!!! He’s big and brash and plays this hideous
country music.
I wouldn’t be
caught dead
in the saddle with him; I don’t care how handsome he is!!! On top of that, I got caught in a rock slide and then kidnapped by two old codgers straight from
Deliverance
!!!

Before everybody panics, let me tell you I kicked some serious butt! Except for a little bruise or two, I’m doing great and
on my way to Alabama
! Thank God!!!!

Bea

From: Molly

To: Bea, Janet, Joanna, Catherine, Clemmie, Belinda

Re: Your hero

OMG, you found a hero? Who
is he?

Molly

From: Joanna

To: Bea, Molly, Catherine, Clemmie, Belinda, Janet

Re: Hot

Is he HOT? TELL ALL!!!

Joanna

From: Bea

To: Molly, Joanna, Janet, Catherine, Clemmie, Belinda

Re: My rescuer

His name is Russ Hammond, and
no,
he’s not
hot!
Well, sort of, but not the kind of hot you want to latch onto and turn into Mr. Right! Just chill! I’m dirty and hungry and bruised, besides. I have to think of
me.
Besides, my signal is getting low and I don’t know when I’ll get any more decent cell phone service.

Bea

Ignoring the emails the Dixie Virgins sent in quick succession, Bea made a quick call to her mother, who pretended she hadn’t been the least worried. Then she powered off her iPhone and just sat there like a lump. She really was hungry, and Russ really was hot, and she no longer had a clue what she was going to do about
anything.

o0o

They had found a place to eat, one of those little frame restaurants with checked gingham curtains in the window and a hog-shaped sign in the yard,
Eat Here
.

They did. They ordered a meal and ate with a minimum of conversation.

“Do you want more bread?” Bea asked at one point.

“Please.”

Much later Russ said, “Would you pass the pepper?”

She handed it across the table, being careful not to make contact with his hand.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

It was a relief to leave the steamy closeness of the restaurant and climb into the rusty old truck. Even the country music was a relief, Bea decided as they rattled down the road. At least it was something. At least it was noise to cover the awkward pauses and the loaded glances and the screaming silences.

The rhythm of the tires and the plaintive crooning of the blues lulled Bea. She dozed.

Russ glanced over at her from time to time. She really wasn’t beautiful in a traditional way. Her eyes were too big and her skin was too pale and she was a little on the thin side. He guessed it must be her spirit that made him think she was the most glorious woman he’d ever met.

That scared him. He didn’t know when he’d started thinking of her in that way. He didn’t even want to know.

He was leaving her... before she left him.

It was inevitable, of course. She was a well-to-do, successful woman, accustomed to the finer things in life. And what did he have to offer? An old beat-up truck, a battered suitcase and a pair of snakeskin boots. That about summed up his worth. A woman like her wouldn’t stay with him a minute, let alone a lifetime.

He glanced out the window. The road sign said only sixteen more miles to Memphis.

It was nearly dark, but they should still be able to find a rental-car agency open. He wouldn’t take her money, of course. He’d even offer to pay for her rental car.

She’d be glad to be rid of him. It would be best all the way around—for both of them.

The miles whizzed by, faster and faster. Only twelve miles to Memphis. Then ten.

He didn’t feel right, somehow. Perhaps if he explained a little before he told her goodbye.

“It happened in Florida…”

The sound of Russ’s voice brought Bea wide awake. She jerked her head upright and glanced out the window. A road sign proclaimed eight more miles to Memphis.

“What happened in Florida?” She yawned and rubbed her eyes, then turned to face him.

“LaBelle, Florida.” He didn’t glance her way. His profile was set and still, and his eyes looked as if they were focused on something she couldn’t see. “I had a citrus grove down there. In the early spring it smelled so sweet...” He stared out the window, silent now.

She waited. A light rain began to fall. Russ turned on the wipers, and their blades began a soft swishing rhythm against the windows.

He was silent a long time, and then suddenly he started talking again.

“I loved everything about that state. The sky was so blue it sometimes hurt your eyes to look at it, and the sunshine—always the sunshine—so warm you didn’t have to wear clothes.” He laughed, but it was not a sound of mirth. “I had a private lake. We loved to cavort naked. Just the two of us...

“I thought it would last forever,” he added after a brief pause. “Wasn’t that crazy, to think something could last forever?”

He turned then and looked at her. Even in the waning light, Bea could see the question in his eyes, as if he wanted her to argue with him, to say, “Of course, it wasn’t crazy. Things
do
last forever.”

But she wouldn’t tell him lies. She knew nothing lasted forever. Not Taylor and not a string of men who had pledged more than friendship.

She was more than curious about this man who was her rescuer, her knight in python boots and a ramshackle pickup truck.

“What didn’t last forever, Russ?”

“My marriage.”

“Your marriage?” Bea squeezed the handle of her purse. “You have a wife?”

“Had. Past tense. Lurlene two-timed me with the B-Quick Man.” He laughed and became almost jocular. Telling Bea about Lurlene had released something inside him, unlocked some secret door that he hadn’t even known he’d kept locked. “It was no love match from the beginning. More like a marriage of convenience. But we both said the vows and meant them... till death do us part. I guess she should have said, ‘till the B-Quick Man do us part.’“

Relieved, and guilty because she was feeling that way, Bea reached across the seat and squeezed his arm.

“I’m sorry, Russ. That must have hurt.”

“No. It just taught me what I knew all along. I’m a rambling man and always will be. There’s no use thinking any other way. I guess I’d have left her sooner or later.”

He turned but couldn’t see Bea’s face in the dark, couldn’t tell how she was taking his deliberate lie.

God in Heaven,
he prayed silently,
if you can hear me up there, forgive me for what I am about to do.