Small Town Girl (2 page)

Evie twisted her lips, but she couldn’t keep from smiling. She gave up and laughed out loud. “You’re right about that.”

Kate reached over and touched Evie’s hand. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“I’m not moving to California. I’m just getting married.” Evie turned her hand over and squeezed Kate’s hand.

“I know. But it’ll be different. It’s already been different with you away at school and now working in Frankfort.” Kate swallowed hard. Here she was worried about Evie tearing up and instead she was.

“Don’t you dare cry, Kate Merritt. You have to be happy for me.” Evie shook Kate’s hand a little. “You have to.”

“I am.” Kate managed a smile. She was happy for Evie. Her heart seemed to be divided right down the middle. Happy on one side for her sister. Crying on the other side for what could never be.

J
ay Tanner watched his friend Mike Champion pace back and forth under the big oak tree beside the white clapboard church.

Mike pulled a watch out of the pocket of his black suit and frowned down at it a few seconds before he said, “They should be here by now.”

Sweat was beading up on Mike’s forehead that Jay didn’t think was entirely due to the heat, although the sun was beating down more like July than September. Certainly not suit weather.

No weather was suit weather for Jay, but here he was in a suit he’d spent next month’s rent money to buy. He didn’t worry about that. He’d been ready to move on anyway. He hadn’t stayed anywhere for more than six months since he’d gotten out of high school, and he’d been down in Tennessee five months now. He could always live out of his car for a while until he found another job. Besides, he’d sleep on the ground before he let Mike down.

Mike had been twelve, a year older than Jay, when Jay showed up at his new school after he’d moved in with his aunt and uncle. It wasn’t a big school—all eight grades in two rooms—and it had been easy to see that Mike was the
boy everybody listened to. Even the teachers. So that’s who Jay picked to beat up at recess.

They had rolled around on the schoolyard with first one of them and then the other landing a punch. Finally Mike pinned Jay in the dirt. Jay expected Mike to pummel him into the ground, but instead he said, “You’re tough for such a scrawny kid. What did you say your name was?”

“Tanner. Jay Tanner.” Jay’s swollen lip gave him a lisp. He stared up at Mike without blinking. So what if he got punched in the face. It wouldn’t be the first black eye Jay ever had.

Mike turned loose of Jay’s shoulders and sat back. “I like you, Tanner.” He stuck out his hand. “Friends?”

Jay had taken his hand. Let him pull him up. Accepted the friendship. Found a brother. So if Mike wanted Jay to dress up in a suit to stand up with him while he married his girl, then that was what Jay would do. As soon as the girl showed up.

Jay kept his smile hidden as he said, “Maybe she got cold feet. Or came to her senses. A girl has to be half crazy to marry a preacher.”

Mike was too distracted to notice Jay was goading him. Instead he answered seriously, “No, not Evangeline. Even if she did decide to throw me over, she wouldn’t do it until after the ceremony. She’s been working too hard for this show.”

“Show?” Jay frowned at Mike. “You sure you want to marry a girl who’s more worried about the show than the groom?”

Mike put his watch back in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to run across his face. “She’s already got the groom. She knows I would do anything for her.”

“Anything?” Jay raised his eyebrows at Mike.

“You’ll understand someday when you meet the right girl.” Mike poked Jay’s upper arm. “Then not only will you be standing sweating in a black suit, you’ll have talked your best friend into doing the same thing just to make that girl happy.”

“If that girl ever comes along, I’ll talk her into eloping.”

“Not an option with Evangeline. She had her heart set on having a real church wedding with everybody watching. Her mother wanted to get married in the church and it didn’t work out for her, so Evangeline is sort of trying to make up for that. Give them both a chance to enjoy.”

“What about you?” Jay asked. “You enjoying?”

“Well, not the suit. Who’d have thought we’d have a heat wave the end of September?” Mike peered around the corner of the church to see if a car might be coming up the road. “Poor girl. She’s probably down there crying because the Lord didn’t bless us with better weather.”

“Could be worse. Could be storming the way it was this morning.”

“Don’t say that.” Mike scowled up at a few clouds gathering in the west before he shut his eyes.

“You praying? About the weather?” Jay couldn’t keep the laughter out of his voice. While Mike was his best friend on earth—sometimes he thought his only friend—Jay hadn’t gotten used to him being a preacher. It didn’t matter that he’d been preaching now for five years. Jay had only seen him a few times since they’d gone their separate ways after high school—Mike to follow the Lord and Jay to drift wherever the winds of chance blew him.

“Don’t laugh. The Lord answers all kinds of prayers. You’re here, aren’t you?”

“The Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. At least that’s what my uncle used to say. I can’t remember if that was before he belted me one or after.” Jay laughed. “Uncle Henry had a special fondness for Scripture. Especially that one about being sure not to spoil the child by sparing the rod.”

“Henry was poorly the last time I was back home. They didn’t expect him to make it.” Mike had on his preacher’s voice.

“You think I should care, Mike, but I don’t.”

“He and Sadie took you in and put a roof over your head after your mother died.”

“It was a roof. That was all. I more than earned any food I ate. Your mother showed me more kindness than either one of them ever did. Letting me bunk in on the daybed on your back porch that last year of school.”

“She was afraid you might kill your uncle Henry.”

Mike smiled to take the edge off the words, but they both knew the truth of what he said. At sixteen Jay was as big as his uncle. The last time Henry tried to whip him with his belt, Jay had grabbed the belt away from him, wrapped it around his fist, and punched the man in the face. He’d wanted to keep punching him even after he fell down, but his aunt Sadie was screaming. Jay had dropped the belt and gone out the door. He walked the five miles to Mike’s house. Mike’s father hadn’t wanted to let him stay, but Mike’s mother looked into Jay’s eyes, held her arms out to him, and overruled Mr. Champion. Jay had leaned his head on her shoulder and cried like a baby.

“Your mother is a saint. I just showed up at the wedding because I thought she might be here.”

“That’s probably the truest thing you’ve said since you got here. But it’s a long way from Gaffney up here to Rosey Corner. Way too far for something as common as a wedding.”

“Your folks were always sensible,” Jay said.

“They are that. Evangeline and I will drive down sometime next month to let everybody meet the new Mrs. Champion.” Mike pulled his watch out again and stared at it. “Something must be wrong. I’d better go see.”

“You can’t go. Then we might lose the bride
and
the groom. I’ll go check on her. That’s what a best man is supposed to do, isn’t it? Make sure both parties make it to the altar?” Jay clapped Mike on the shoulder and started toward his car in front of the church.

“Make sure you come back too,” Mike called after him.

“Don’t worry. The sooner we get this over with and I get out of this suit, the better.”

The littlest sister, the one Mike said wasn’t really a sister, came running down the church steps when she saw Jay. Last night when he was at the bride’s house for dinner, the kid had followed Jay around like a puppy dog. She told him all about the book she was reading, the new kittens in the barn, and that she’d turned ten last June. That was how kids were. Ready to tell everything, but she was cute.

He slowed down to let her catch up with him before he got to his car. She could have been Jay’s sister, with her curly black hair and brown eyes, but more than that, he felt a kinship with her because of how Mike said she’d been dropped on the church steps and abandoned by her parents. He knew how that felt. Not that his mother had wanted to abandon him. She couldn’t help getting sick, but his father had been ready enough to be rid of him when he got remarried. At least this kid had found a loving family to take her in and looked to be happy enough.

“Where are you going, Mr. Tanner? We haven’t had the wedding yet.”

“And we aren’t going to if we don’t get the bride up here.” He smiled down at her. “I thought you were going to call me Jay.”

The kid ducked her head. “Kate said maybe I should get to know you better first.” She drew a line in the grass with the toe of her shiny black shoe and peeked back up at him.

“Well, you can’t call me mister. Nobody calls me mister. And if you can’t call me Jay, then I guess you’ll just have to call me Tanner. At least until you get to know me better.”

“Okay.” She giggled before she said, “Tanner.”

“That’s more like it. Now I’ve got to go bride hunting.”

“Mama said Evie should be here by now.” The kid looked around the churchyard.

“E.V.?” Jay looked around too. “That your dog or something?”

The girl put her hand over her mouth to smother another giggle. “No, that’s Evangeline. Nobody calls her Evie but Kate and me. She lets us because we’re her sisters.”

“How about you? What do they call you?”

The little girl looked at him as if he’d asked the stupid question of the day. “Lorena. My name is Lorena Birdsong.”

“Right. So Birdie it is. You want to go bride hunting with me, Birdie?” He got in his car and pointed to the other door.

“You’re funny.” The kid opened the passenger-side door and climbed in.

“Tell your sister that.” Jay backed the car out onto the road.

“Who? Evie?”

“No, your other sister. Kate.”

“Do you think Kate’s pretty? Kate says most boys don’t, but I think she’s pretty. The first time I saw her I thought she was an angel.”

“An angel, huh?” Jay glanced over at her.

“You probably think that’s crazy, but I don’t care.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared straight ahead with her lips together in a stubborn line.

“I thought angels had wings and wore white and floated around in the clouds.” Jay grinned at the kid, then looked back out at the road.

“She’s not that kind of angel.” Every hint of laughter in her voice disappeared as she went on. “But she’s still an angel. When I came here, my mama—my real mama—told me to pray and an angel would come take care of me. I did and Kate found me.”

“Did she take care of you?”

“She loved me. Right then. As soon as she saw me. She’s my angel sister.” The kid stared over at him as if daring him to say it wasn’t so.

“An angel sister. Sounds like a good thing to have.” Jay kept his eyes on the road. “Does this angel sister of yours have a boyfriend?”

“You do think she’s pretty. I knew you did.” She sounded extra pleased. “She has a boyfriend, but Carl likes her better than she likes him. They’re not about to get married or anything. Now Tori—that’s my other sister, Victoria—she and her boyfriend, Sammy, are already talking about when they can get married. Mama says they’re both way too young and they’ll have to wait until Tori gets out of school. But we all like Sammy.”

“And do you like this, who did you say? Carl?”

“Sure. He’s okay. He lets me go to the movies with them, but Kate says it doesn’t matter who everybody else likes. It’s who she likes that matters.”

“Sounds reasonable to me. But does she like anybody?”

“She likes lots of people. Me and Evie and Tori and Mike. She might even like you, Tanner. When she gets to know you better.” The kid smiled over at him. “Since you’re so funny.”

“I keep them laughing, Birdie.” They both laughed then.

Birdie pointed out through the windshield. “Uh-oh. Looks like Mike’s car won’t start. Kate’s giving it a crank.”

“A girl shouldn’t try that. You don’t do it right, a crank can fly back and break your arm.” Jay turned off the road into the yard. There wasn’t a driveway, just a dirt spot where Mike’s car was sitting.

“Not Kate’s arm. Kate can do anything,” Birdie said.

As if to prove the kid right, the engine rattled to a start. Kate gave Jay a cool look as she climbed back behind the wheel.

Jay pulled up beside her, window to window. “Looks like I’m too late to be of help.”

Before Kate could answer, Evangeline leaned over. “The car wouldn’t start and then the engine flooded. We’ve been sitting here forever. Is Mike in a panic?”

“Not our Mike. He’s waiting at the altar. Patiently. Said you wouldn’t miss your own wedding. He didn’t have any way of knowing the bridesmaid was doing mechanic’s work.” Jay turned his eyes back to Kate and blasted her with his best smile. The one no girl could resist. Her lips barely turned up at the corners in response.

“It was kind of you to come check on us, but now the bride is a bit anxious to get to the church.” Kate put the car in gear and, without another look his way, bounced out of the yard.

“Guess we’d better follow them back to the church, don’t you think?” Jay shot a grin at the kid as he wheeled the car in a circle through the yard. “And you know what, Birdie? You’re right. I do think your sister is pretty. All your sisters.”

“Me too?” Birdie asked.

“You too. Especially you. The four of you are by far the prettiest bunch of sisters I’ve ever met.”