Pleasure in the Rain (10 page)

“I love you, CeCe. So much. Will you marry me?”

“I love you, Holden. And yes, I will.”

He lifts my hand to his mouth, kisses the back of my wrist and rubs his thumb across the diamond’s surface.

“I will live every day of my life trying to deserve you,” he says softly.

“And I’ll live mine trying to deserve you,” I say.

Footsteps echo on the tile behind us. I look up. Thomas walks toward us with his long, purposeful stride.

“Is this make-out central?” he asks. “If so, y’all shoulda told me, so I could’ve brought a date.”

I smile as Holden turns around and says, “It was make out central until you blew the moment.”

Thomas stops and gives us both a long look. “What moment’s that?”

“The moment where we finally admit we want to spend our lives together.” I smile and for the first time in so very long, feel really happy.

“Well, good grief, it’s about time,” he says, grinning and walking over to clap Holden on the back.

I hold up my hand and wave the ring at him.

Thomas throws Holden a look. “Well, who knew you had that in you, son?”

Holden smiles and shakes his head. “You’re just mad because I didn’t ask your permission.”

“I mighta had some handy pointers on ring-buying for you,” Thomas teases. “But no, you’ve had my permission for a long time.”

“Thanks, man.”

“So where do we go from here?” Thomas asks.

“Making music,” Holden says, and then for my ears only, leans in and adds, “Making love.”

I smile and play swat him away.

Thomas rolls his eyes.

Holden turns to look at Thomas. “Now if we can just find you a CeCe.”

“You don’t think it’s Misty or Dawn then?” Thomas asks with a sly smile.

“Ah, no,” I say. “Most definitely.”

“Well, all right then,” he says, shrugging. “And oh, by the way, while you two were out here patchin’ up your love life, everybody in there’s waiting on us to come sing them a song. Think you can quit batting your eyelashes at each other long enough to-”

Holden throws a playful punch at Thomas’s midsection.

Thomas goes double and says, laughing, “I’ll go out by myself then. They’re not here to hear y’all anyway.”

“Oh, yeah?”
I say. “I think not.”

Holden holds out his arm to me in invitation. “We better get in there before this spotlight hog steals our gig altogether.”

We begin walking back toward the lighted ballroom, me in the middle, Holden and Thomas on either side. “I am a really lucky girl,” I say.

“We’re pretty damn lucky ourselves.” Thomas leans in to kiss my cheek. “It’s really good to have you back, girl.”

“Yeah, it is,” Holden says, rubbing his thumb across the diamond on my hand.

“I’m not ever gonna be sure you actually deserve her,” Thomas says, “but nobody ever said love was logical.”

I laugh and pull them both in closer. We stop just outside the doors leading back into the house. “
Pleasure in the Rain
?” I ask.

Thomas nods. “That’s what they’re asking for.”

“Ready then?”

“As ever,” Thomas says.

“Let’s do it,” Holden says.

And we step into the room, walking side by side, arm in arm.

♪

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

CeCe

When I was a little girl I had no intention of ever marrying a boy. That made absolutely no sense to me because I couldn’t stand them. They were loud and obnoxious and, for the most part, shorter than me, at least the ones my age.

What made sense to me was marrying my dog.

Henry, my best friend at the time, was a hound Mama and I found starving in the woods near our house. He was already old when he came to us. He had a bum front leg so that he could barely walk, and his eyes had already started to go cloudy with age. We took him to our vet in town. Dr. Finlay told us that hunters in the area would sometimes abandon a dog no longer able to keep up with the pack and that most likely this was what had happened to Henry. I couldn’t believe anyone would actually do such a thing, but that old saying “one man’s trash is another’s treasure” could have been written about what Henry brought to our lives.

Once we got him to feeling better, and he could walk again, he became the most joyful soul I’ve ever known.

I didn’t care about spending time with friends because Henry was the best companion I could imagine having. We would go on long hikes through the woods and up the mountain near our house. Henry had a nose for finding great stuff, a rabbit hole where we once came upon a nest of baby bunnies. Henry pointed them out with his wagging tail and never made any attempt to harm them; he just wanted to show them to me. Another time it was two baby skunks. Before we finished our oohing and tail-wagging, the mama returned and sent us both running back to the house with a highly smelly and unforgettable reminder not to mess with her babies.

It didn’t seem possible that I would ever meet anyone in my life more entertaining, more loving than my Henry. It only made sense to me that we would get married one day because apparently that was what you did when you knew you were going to love someone for the rest of your life.

Henry died when I was twelve.

He just kind of went to sleep in my arms one night when I woke to the sound of him whimpering softly. He was curled up beside me on my bed. I remember slipping my arms around him and pulling him up close. He was breathing hard like he’d just run a really long way. As soon as I hugged him to me and kissed the top of his head, his breathing stopped, as if he had been waiting for me to kiss him goodbye.

My heart completely broke that night. I refused to get out of bed and go to school for a week. I realize now how lucky I was to have a mama who recognized my grief and just let me feel it until I could face getting up and going on without Henry.

Almost a year passed before I could bring myself to go back into our woods again, to walk the paths that we had made together.

I was sixteen before I let myself believe that it was okay to bring another dog into my life. Mama and I went to the pound one Saturday morning where a skinny long-legged hound curled up at the back of his kennel and shaking uncontrollably, stole my heart as instantly as Henry had.

By that age, I had begun to look at boys somewhat differently. But there is one thing about my little girl resolution to one day marry my dog that hasn’t changed. And that’s this: the man I decided to marry would have to be the most loyal friend I could ever hope for, as devoted to me as I am to him.

In Holden, I have no doubt this is what I’ve found.

He stands at the front of the small Virginia Baptist church I grew up in, waiting for me to walk down the aisle. Hank Junior and Patsy sit at his side, all three of them staring back at me with adoring expressions.

“I’m not sure which of the three loves you more,” Thomas says now, looking down at me and smiling.

Thomas is giving me away today. It feels really right for him to do so. He’s family in the truest sense of the word, those people in your life who would be there for you, no matter the need. Thomas is definitely that for me and for Holden, too.

“Thank you,” I say, “for doing this.”

“Walking you down the aisle?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there stands the only guy in the world I’d hand you over to, and even then, if I had a lick of common sense, I’d probably swoop you up and steal you out from under his nose. I would say I hope he knows how lucky he is, but he does.”

I reach up and kiss Thomas on the cheek, “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“You may be a bit partial, Miss MacKenzie.”

“No, I just know good when I see it.”

The pianist strikes the first chords of the wedding march. My heart starts to beat faster, and I realize that I’m about to step forward into a life I will never stop being thankful for.

“We’re on, let’s do this thing,” Thomas says, the same as he does every time we go on stage to perform.

We start down the aisle. The church is full of familiar faces I’ve known all my life and many from Nashville as well. Mama and Aunt Vera are sitting on the front row with Case in between them. Mama is crying, but they’re happy tears. Her eyes shine with them.

We stop just short of Holden, Hank Junior and Patsy. The pastor smiles at us, says a few words of welcome, and just the way we practiced it last night, Thomas takes my hand and joins it with Holden’s. He kisses my cheek, claps Holden on the shoulder and then steps in behind him.

Hank Junior thumps his tail on the wood floor, and the sound makes everyone seated behind us laugh softly. I reach down and kiss his head, and then Patsy’s, too.

When I stand up again, I let myself look into Holden’s eyes. They’re so full of love and happiness that for a second, just a second, old fears flash through me. Will it last? Is this too good to be true? Can life really be this wonderful?

But I blink them away, not letting let them take root.

I know that life doesn’t come with guarantees. We can only live the moment that’s in front of us. I believe with all my heart that we should live that moment fully, embrace it without wasting even a second worrying about what might be beyond it.

We can’t control that part, other people’s thoughts, other people’s actions. We can only control our own.

I choose to fill mine with love. Love for and the love of a guy I know how lucky I am to have. I don’t ever want to take that for granted, but I don’t think that I will.

Life is precious, love is a gift. The sun might not always shine on us. But those will be the days that we take pleasure in the rain.

♪

Next

♪

NASHVILLE -Part Five

Thomas and Lila

To get a FREE copy of the soundtrack, click on the title below.

Pleasure in the Rain

Strung out on doubt

Can’t see past all the clouds

All your tears have been cried

You’ve given up on the flip side

And all you can think is why, why

How strong is a heart that’s felt no pain

What good is a life if there’s nothing to gain

While we’re getting to the eye of the hurricane

We can take a little pleasure in the rain

In the rain

Storms come and go

They leave ruts in the road

But when heaven downpours

We figure out what we’re here for

And how we can stay the course, course

How strong is a heart that’s felt no pain

What good is a life if there’s nothing to gain

While we’re getting to the eye of the hurricane

We can take a little pleasure in the rain

In the rain

In the rain

In the rain

When we look back

At where we’ve been

See those muddy tracks

Feel that warm wind

Yeah

How strong is a heart that’s felt no pain

What good is a life if there’s nothing to gain

While we’re getting to the eye of the hurricane

We can take a little pleasure in the rain

In the rain

In the rain

In the rain

In the rain

In the rain

In the rain

In the rain

Yeah, in the rain

Credits

Pleasure in the Rain

Written by Inglath Cooper and Gabe Stalnaker

Produced by Jason Garner Productions, Inc.

Nashville, TN

All rights reserved

Dear Reader,

I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my story. There are so many wonderful books to choose from these days, and I am hugely appreciative that you chose mine.

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Wishing you many, many happy afternoons of reading pleasure.

All best,

Inglath

ABOUT INGLATH COOPER