Small Town Girl (10 page)

“Where is it? Here in Rosey Corner?”

“It was. It burned up some years back. When the woods over yonder burned.” Graham waved toward the west. “The trees are coming back, but the house, it’s gone forever.”

“Tough luck for you,” Jay said.

“Oh, it wasn’t so bad. My memories didn’t burn up. I worried some that might happen, but it didn’t. And I made it out with the girls. Thanks to Poe here.” Graham reached over and touched the dog’s head. The dog opened his eyes and flapped his tail a couple of times against the dirt.

“The girls?”

“Kate and little Lorena. Maybe I’ll tell you the story someday if you stick around long enough.”

Jay wiped the sweat off his forehead with his shirttail and then stretched out on the ground with his hands under his head. “You could tell me now. While we’re cooling off and watching the paint dry.” Graham was an entertaining storyteller.

“Naw, you haven’t earned that story yet.”

“I have to earn stories?” Jay rose up a little to give Graham the eye. “I think we might have a problem here. I thought I was working for cash.”

Graham waved his hand. “I told you I’d give you half what I got. The stories are bonus. For both of us. Everybody round here has heard my stories way too many times. They’re done tired of hearing how far Aunt Hattie’s boy could hit a baseball or how me and Nadine were about the onliest ones not to get the flu back in ’18. We about wore ourselves out tending to the sick. ’Course Victor was over there in France then, fighting the war.”

Jay relaxed back down on the grass. He might never get the first dollar for this job, but sometimes it was good to simply stop awhile. “But what about Kate and the little sister?”

Graham didn’t answer his question. Instead he took the stem of grass out of his mouth and fastened his eyes tight
on Jay. “You seem awful interested in Kate. Egging on that gossipy Alice to talk about her.”

“I was just trying to stop her thinking about stepping closer to me. Let me tell you, the next time she comes, I’m the one up the ladder.”

Graham laughed. “You do seem to be drawing the female attention.”

“Maybe it’s you. Not me.”

“That’s a thought,” Graham said.

An easy silence fell between them as a bee buzzed past and a mockingbird started running through his repertoire. Jay had almost dozed off when Graham spoke up again. “Thing is, the only girl who used to come around to make conversation while I was painting hasn’t come near me all week.”

“You mean Kate.” Jay kept staring at the leaves above him. One shook loose in the breeze and floated down to land on his stomach.

“The two of you seemed plenty friendly at the wedding, but now she don’t seem to want to let her eyes fall on you.” Graham leaned forward and plucked up a new piece of grass. “You know any reason for that to be so?”

Jay chose his words carefully. He could move on down the road, but he liked Graham. He didn’t want to part on bad terms, and it was easy to see he was Kate’s champion. “Maybe she doesn’t like looking at shiners.”

“That could be it,” Graham said. “It ain’t a very pretty sight. Colorful and all as it is. But I’m thinking it might be something that happened before the black eye. What’d you do to scare that girl?”

Jay decided to be honest. “I asked her if I could kiss the sister of the bride, but then I got socked in the eye instead of kissed.”

“But not by Kate.”

“No, not by Kate.”

“And now she’s avoiding you like the plague.” Graham’s voice was low, almost like he was talking to himself.

“You could say that.” Jay stared at the sun slipping through the leaves. If they didn’t get up and start painting again soon, the day was going to be gone. But then Graham was the boss of this job, and if he wanted to talk about Kate, that was okay with Jay. He wanted to know more about Kate. That’s why he was still in Rosey Corner. “Maybe she thinks I’m the one who’s scary.”

“Could be. Could be. Kate likes to think she can handle things.” Graham looked over at Jay. “The question is, what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know. What do you think I should do?” Another leaf came floating down to land on his chest. If he kept lying there doing nothing long enough, he might get covered up.

“Maybe nothing. According to whether you have honorable intentions.”

“I wasn’t thinking about marriage. Just a movie and maybe another slice of her mother’s brown sugar pie.”

“Nadine’s pie is worth the trouble of taking a bath for Sunday dinner. That’s for sure.” Graham pushed himself up off the ground. “Guess we’d better paint another plank or two.”

“Right.” Jay stood up too, but before he could pick up his paintbrush, Graham stepped in front of him.

“Kate’s one of a kind. You keep that in mind and don’t be doing nothing I’m going to regret.”

“You?”

“For making you this business deal. Seemed the thing to do at the time, but that was before I knew you might be a guy with no finish to you.”

“I’ll finish this job with you.”

“Maybe you will.” Graham gave him a hard stare, then he pointed up over their heads. “I lack some up there. Had to come down when I spilled that paint.”

S
o, Victoria tells me you threw over Carl.” Evie smoothed out the skirt of the green dress she’d just unfolded and hung up on the hook behind the bedroom door. The dress was new. She looked around at Kate and snapped her fingers. “Just like that, she says. And look what that got you. Nowhere to go on a Saturday night.”

It was the first time Evie had been home since the wedding. Now the house was in a stir as they figured out where Kate, Tori, and Lorena were going to sleep since they were giving over their bedroom to Evie and Mike. Mike had spent a lot of nights at the Merritt house, but he’d always slept on the couch—a visitor. He said he would again, but Evie stamped her foot and said absolutely not. Mama agreed with her. Even if it did cause an uproar.

Some things didn’t change and Evie getting her way seemed to be one of them. Being married only made her a kind of honored guest with even more than her normal privileges. Next weekend Kate would take Lorena and go spend Saturday night with Aunt Gertie. Let Evie take over the house again. But tonight, Kate had been anxious to see her, to find out if she liked being married. To find out how it felt to be married. To find out if she herself was going to feel different.

She wanted to feel different. Mike was her sister’s husband, a friend, her preacher. That was all. She’d been telling herself that for months, and this last week it seemed to finally be taking root in her head. When Mike’s car had rolled into the yard that afternoon and he and Evie climbed out, Kate had simply looked at him with a weird kind of regret that she’d never find a man as good as Evie had.

That was Evie. Using her looks, claiming things to be her right as oldest daughter, demanding the best of whatever was up for grabs. Sometimes they fought about it, but Kate generally gave in. Life had always been easier that way. Besides, Kate was the middle sister—the one who had to make sure everybody got along.

But she had expected Evie to be different after she was married. Easier. Gentler. Not so ready to poke Kate with barbed words. To maybe be the one person besides Mama who understood about Carl. All week at the store, people had been giving Kate the eye and stepping a little back from her like she might have something contagious.

Her mother told her not to worry about that. She said people were just surprised. That sometimes people got the wrong ideas in their heads about what ought to happen. Even though her mother understood and agreed that Kate couldn’t marry Carl just because everybody in Rosey Corner thought she should, it was easy to see she was feeling sorry for him too. Everybody was feeling sorry for Carl.

Kate thought somebody should feel sorry for her. But it wasn’t looking as if she was going to get any sympathy from Evie either. They were alone in the bedroom. Mike had gone to check on one of the elderly deacons, Mr. Blackwell, who’d been feeling poorly for a few weeks. Lorena and Tori were in the kitchen helping Mama get supper on the table. Kate had wanted these alone minutes with Evie to talk, but not to talk about Carl.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and ran her hands over the quilted spread. Aunt Gertie had cut the pieces out of old dresses and shirts. Kate’s finger paused on a square of faded red. All that was left of a favorite dress when she was Lorena’s age. She’d worn it until there were holes under the sleeves. But it had been Evie’s dress first. Everything was Evie’s first.

Kate held in a sigh as she said, “Carl wanted me to marry him.” Evie would have to hear the whole story and then tell her how she should have done it better.

“No surprise there. The two of you have been dating for years.” Evie unclipped her earrings and dropped them in a dish on the dresser. She peered into the mirror, then picked up a brush to smooth out the ridges her hat had left in her hair.

“We’ve been friends for years. I never thought we were dating.”

Evie paused in her brushing to stare at Kate’s reflection in the mirror. “Come on, Kate. You knew he didn’t think that. The boy’s been crazy about you forever.”

“You’re right. I should have told him sooner. But I like Carl. It was fun doing stuff with him.”

“Kissing stuff?” Evie raised her eyebrows at Kate in the mirror.

“No, of course not.” Kate frowned back at her.

“You’re almost twenty, Kate. Surely you’ve done some kissing.” Evie started pushing little waves into her hair with her fingers.

“I’ve never met anybody I wanted to kiss.” That wasn’t exactly true, but she couldn’t very well tell her sister how most of her teenage dreams of kissing starred her new husband. Then again there was that moment of temptation with Jay Tanner, but no way was she going to let Evie know about that. Everybody had a weak moment now and again that meant nothing.

“Oh, but kissing is so divine.” Evie sighed and hugged the brush up against her chest. She spun around in a circle before plopping down on the bed beside Kate. “It is all so divine.” She lay back on the bed and stretched her arms over her head with a blissful look on her face.

“So your wedding night was all right? You weren’t scared?” Kate looked at her. “When Mama gave us the talk, you acted a little nervous.”

“I know. It all sounds so . . .” Evie hesitated, a flush coloring her cheeks as she sat back up. “I don’t know, so something when you talk about it. But when you’re with someone you love, it turns into something divine. Two becoming one like the Bible says.”

“Good. I’m glad you’re happy, Evie.” Kate reached over for Evie’s hand. “Really glad.”

“You’re not jealous?” Evie leaned in front of Kate to look straight into her eyes.

“No. Why would I be jealous?” Kate frowned a little.

“Because I’m in love and you’re not. Because I found out about all this first.”

“You’re oldest. You were supposed to get married first.”

“Because there’s only one Mike.”

“You’re right there.” Kate kept her voice even. “Mike is a great guy and I may never find anybody half as nice as him, but can you really see me as a preacher’s wife?”

Evie giggled. “Or me either, for that matter.”

“But that’s what you are now. Mama says it won’t be an easy spot for you, and she should know. Being a preacher’s daughter like she was.”

“I know, but I’ll figure it out. With Mike’s help and Mama’s.” Evie squeezed Kate’s hand. “And yours. If those church ladies give me trouble, I’ll let you straighten them out.”

“I can do it.”

They both laughed then, sharing unspoken memories of all
the times Kate had been in hot water with the church ladies for being too ready to speak her mind. Kate’s laugh faded away. “The church ladies aren’t too happy with me now. They were all set to eat wedding cake again with Carl and me. Now he’s going off to the Navy and everybody thinks I’m heartless.”

“Heartless Kate.” Evie was still smiling.

Kate dropped her head so Evie wouldn’t see how those words hurt her.

Evie put her arm around her shoulders and gave her a little shake. “I didn’t mean it, you nut. You have the biggest heart of anybody I know. Except Mike, of course. But you, Kate, you love everybody. Just look at Lorena still thinking you’re an angel half the time. And what about Graham? Anybody who can love that old man and his mangy dog has to have a big heart.”

“Graham’s a great guy.”

“Yeah, I know. You’ve been telling me that for years.” Evie rolled her eyes. “He needs to take more baths, is all I’m going to say.”

“Well, that could be. But he says Poe doesn’t care how he smells.” Kate stared down at her hands and pushed out her next words. “Do you think that’s the way I’ll end up? Never finding somebody to love?”

“Good golly, no. You’ll find somebody right for you someday, Kate.” Evie stood up and pulled Kate to her feet. “And then you’ll know what I’m talking about. How loving somebody can make you feel like you’re floating on butterfly wings.” She laughed again and spun Kate around with her. “Divine. I think that’s going to be my new favorite word.”

Just then Lorena pushed open the bedroom door and ran in, her face lit up with excitement. “Kate! Kate! Tanner’s here. Mike brought him home with him.”

“Tanner?” Evie looked puzzled. “Have you gotten a dog?”

Lorena put her hand over her mouth and giggled.

“What’s so funny?” Evie asked.

“No dog, although Lorena would like that. She means Jay Tanner, Mike’s friend. His best man at the wedding.” Kate tapped her finger against Evie’s forehead. “Remember? Dark hair, brown eyes.”

“Devil-may-care look. Not the kind of guy I thought would show up as Mike’s best friend, I have to admit. I guess I didn’t remember his name.” Evie frowned a little at Lorena. “Why are you calling him Tanner?”

Lorena slid her eyes over to Kate as she said, “He told me to.”

“And I told you Mr. Tanner would be better.” Kate gave her a stern look.

Lorena ducked her head, but her grin didn’t disappear.

“What’s he still doing here? I thought Mike said he was on his way to Chicago or somewhere to look for work,” Evie said.

The men’s voices were drifting back to them from the porch where they must have settled down to talk. Kate’s father laughed, and then there was the familiar sound of Mike’s voice and the lower tones that belonged to Jay Tanner. Kate’s heart did a funny little chug at the sound. She’d been avoiding him all week, but she couldn’t very well slip out the back door and run away from her own house. She’d have to sit at the supper table with him looking at her and remembering how she’d almost let him kiss her.

“He found work here.” Kate kept her voice casual. “He’s helping Graham paint Mrs. Harrelson’s house.”

Lorena laughed again. “Tanner says he doesn’t think Graham’s too interested in getting the job done. He says Graham must be sweet on Mrs. Harrelson. Either that or he likes the sugar cookies she’s been baking for them.”

“I’d bet on the sugar cookies,” Kate said. “Graham’s not about to let any woman catch him.”

“No,” Evie agreed, wrinkling her nose up. “He might have to take a bath.”

The screen door slammed and then Mike was calling, “Where’s my beautiful wife?” He came back into the bedroom, his face lighting up at the sight of Evie. He grabbed her close to him and dropped a kiss down on her lips as though they’d been apart for days instead of less than an hour.

She pushed him back. “Mike, the girls.”

He looked at Kate and Lorena and then lowered his voice to a stage whisper as he turned back to Evie. “You did tell them we’re married, didn’t you? Oh that’s right. They were there.”

“Oh, stop being silly.” Evie hit him lightly on the arm.

“Never will I stop being silly over you.” He was staring straight into Evie’s eyes.

Kate could see Evie almost melting against him. She put her hand on Lorena’s shoulder. “Maybe we’d better go see if Mama needs help setting the table. Did you tell her we had an extra guest or is Jay staying to eat?” Kate looked at Mike.

“Of course he’s staying,” Mike said. “I told him your mother might have made a brown sugar pie.”

“Nope,” Lorena said. “Apple dumplings.”

“Even better. He’ll think he’s died and gone to heaven,” Mike said. “He says he’s been living on bologna and beans. I figured he’d been down here begging supper every night, but he says not. Says he’s just been hanging out with Graham and his old dog. But Graham was headed out to the woods to sit on a log somewhere and pretend that Poe wasn’t too old to track down a raccoon tonight. So Jay was at loose ends.”

“He didn’t want to go hunting with Graham? I can’t imagine why not.”

“Me either,” Kate said, with none of Evie’s sarcasm. She wished she were sitting on that log beside Graham, listening to his stories while they waited for Poe to start baying somewhere in the woods.

Mike laughed. “Jay never was one much for hunting four-legged creatures. He was more interested in girl chasing. Come to think of it, I’m surprised some girl hasn’t already made eyes at him and talked him into taking her somewhere. Jay’s never had trouble getting girls. Keeping them maybe, but not getting them.”

Lorena piped up. “Oh, the girls have been after him. Graham says they’ve been parading past Mrs. Harrelson’s house every afternoon, but Alice Wilcher is the worst. Graham said he had to drop paint on her head the other day to get rid of her.”

“Drop paint on her head? How did he manage that?” Kate tried not to laugh, but the thought of Alice with paint running down her head was too much. Alice’s father was a lawyer in Frankfort, and she was always letting everybody else know how much better her things were than anybody else’s. So maybe she had some better shampoo.

“I don’t know. But he did. Said she was a mite upset.” Lorena laughed too.

“You two are terrible,” Evie said. “Poor Alice.” But she couldn’t keep from laughing with them.

“Girls, girls,” Mike called them down with a smile that gave lie to his words. “Show a little compassion. Alice isn’t that bad.”

“Oh yes, she is,” Kate and Evie said in concert.

“I hear compassion has been in short supply this week around here anyway.” Mike looked straight at Kate.

“Oh?” Kate knew what he was talking about, but pretended not to. If it had been anybody but Mike, she would have said she didn’t want to talk about it, but you couldn’t tell a preacher that, or a new brother-in-law.