The Wedding Pearls Read online

  During a commercial break Melody declared, “If my two little brothers act like that the day I get married, I am going to strangle both of them. Shelby is a better person than I am. They’re going to be real sorry for the way they’ve acted, because when they get married, I hope she really acts up. Or better yet, I hope she has a bunch of mean little boys that ruin their wedding.”

  Tessa had seen the movie half a dozen times and knew how it would end, but she didn’t say a word to spoil it for Melody.

  Lola slipped back into her spot and patted Melody on the knee. “So you like Julia’s character, Shelby?”

  “I want to grow up and be like her. I might start wearing my hair all big and use lots of hair spray. And pink might be my new signature color,” Melody said.

  Branch moved closer to Tessa. “You mean that you are going to give up black?”

  When his bare leg touched hers she thought the duvet might catch plumb on fire. Four grown people on one queen bed did not allow for much space between them.

  Melody raised her chin a notch. “Yes, I’m going to wear pink, even if red-haired women aren’t supposed to wear it. Tomorrow we get to go to the mall, and if Aunt Ivy and Frankie win tonight, I get to buy something new and it’s going to be pink. Maybe bashful or blush. Not hot pink.”

  “You’re really getting into this, aren’t you?” Tessa asked.

  “Yes, and shhh.” She put a finger over her lips. “Now it’s time for the next part. I wish we’d find a festival like Shelby is at and I could eat fried catfish fresh out of the grease.”

  “Good thing you aren’t a vegetarian anymore.”

  “Shhh!” Melody hissed.

  The movie ended after Shelby’s funeral, and Melody threw herself into Tessa’s arms and sobbed until she got the hiccups. “Oh. My. God. This cannot happen. It’s not fair. She wasn’t supposed to die. Those two old women, Ouiser and Clairee, could die, but not Shelby. She was too good to die.”

  Branch reached across Tessa and laid a hand on Melody’s shoulder. “It’s a movie, Melody. It’s not real life.”

  Her head shot up and she pointed a finger. “No, it’s an epic film. I’m going put it at the top of my Christmas list so I can watch it without commercials. I may go back into mourning for a whole week because Shelby died.”

  Lola rolled off the side of the bed and picked up the pan of lemon bars from the desk. “We need sugar. Here, Melody, indulge, and remember, you can’t wear pink if you are in mourning.”

  Melody took two lemon bars from the pan, holding one in each hand. “I may need to eat the whole thing before I get over this. Shelby wouldn’t want me to wear black. They can have those stupid bracelets that have WWJD on them. I want one that has WWSD, for What would Shelby do? and I may never take it off.” That set off a whole new batch of tears.

  “Eat, sweetie, and don’t cry anymore. It’ll make your eyes swell shut, and you’re making me all weepy,” Lola said softly.

  “What the hell?” Ivy and Frankie both said at the same time when they pushed their way into the room.

  “What is going on in here? Did her mama die?” Ivy asked.

  “We watched Steel Magnolias with her. She’d never seen it and it ended about five minutes ago.” Branch slid off the bed. “Tessa is trying to console her and Lola is trying to help her get through the tears with sugar.”

  “Poor baby,” Ivy said. “I cried the first time I watched that movie, too.”

  Tessa glanced at the clock. “It’s not midnight.”

  Frankie set about removing her rings and putting them in a pouch to lock up in the hotel safe. “They threw us out.”

  “Mama, for God’s sake, were you counting cards?” Lola gasped.

  “I don’t use anything other than my fingers and toes, so what’s wrong with that?” Frankie asked. “Horace didn’t mind a bit when I handed him a thousand-dollar tip.”

  Melody’s hands came away from her eyes. “Horace? Who is that?”

  “Our limo driver and bodyguard,” Ivy said.

  “A thousand-dollar tip?” Tessa’s head reeled at that. “How much did you win?”

  “I won ten but Frankie won forty before they told us we had to leave. But when they caught us we’d only won about five each that round so that’s all we had to give back,” Ivy said.

  “Thousand?” Tessa gasped.

  “Well, honey, we wouldn’t have given Horace a thousand-dollar tip if it had been ten and forty dollars.” Ivy laughed.

  “Holy shit, Aunt Ivy! Does that mean I can really go shopping tomorrow then?” Melody squealed.

  “It does, darlin’. My purse is full, and I’m not stingy with my winnings. Now, tell me what has happened since I left, other than you’re all sad about that movie. You look different without all that makeup.”

  “My new signature colors are bashful and blush pink. I’m never wearing black again,” Melody declared. “And I’m only wearing as much makeup as Shelby would have worn.”

  Ivy’s rings clanked together when she clapped her hands. “Well, hot damn! I should’ve made you watch it a long time ago when you got this silly crap in your head about wearing black and all that damned makeup. Your mama is going to be very happy.”

  “I can’t believe you really won that much, Mama. You usually cash out long before they catch you these days.” Lola laughed.

  “I know, but we was having so much fun. I’ll take you shopping and you can buy anything you want tomorrow,” Frankie said. “Did y’all leave us something to eat? We only nibbled and now I’m hungry.”

  “There’s plenty of soup and chili in the little fridge, but the chocolate chip cookies are gone,” Lola said. “And you know I hate to shop for anything other than stuff for my store, but thank you for the offer.”

  Branch picked up his flip-flops. “I do believe we’ve had enough excitement for one night, so I’m going to my room. And I’m not surprised that you won that much money. I am surprised that they caught you! Good night, ladies.”

  Tessa watched him as he crossed the room and shut the door. Her heart tossed in an extra beat and her palms were slightly clammy. Lord, she had to get a grip and start thinking about dating again. She’d called explicitly to tell Mama that she was ready to go out with that new youth director at the church, but the conversation had gotten sidetracked. What was his name? She touched her chin trying to remember.

  “Tessa?” Lola said.

  She looked up to see Lola with the strangest expression on her face when the youth director’s name—Matthew—came to her mind. It didn’t matter that they called him Matthew and not Matt. She couldn’t date that man, not when he had the same name as her ex-boyfriend, the very culprit who had broken up with her at Christmas.

  “What?” Tessa asked. “Do I have food on me?”

  “No, it was . . . nothing. I’m going to my room, too,” Lola answered.

  Tessa bounced off the bed. “Thanks for being such a good hostess this evening, Melody.”

  “Anytime.” Melody smiled.

  Lola grabbed a book and crawled between the covers in her bed. “Something sure turned that child around. You know anything about that? It was like the difference in night and day from when Mama and Ivy left until we walked into her room.”

  Tessa shrugged. “Maybe she woke up and smelled the bacon.”

  Lola laid the book to the side. “I think maybe you were the one frying that bacon. She’s a kid, so she’ll spill it all eventually, and I’d be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that you gave her some real good advice out there on that jogging trip.”

  “Doughnuts! Why did you have to say doughnuts? Now I want one or a dozen,” Tessa whined.

  “Right out of the bakery with maple icing,” Lola said.

  Tessa fell backward onto her bed and groaned. “Yes! That’s my favorite kind.”

  “Mine, too. We’ll make it a point to stop tomorrow and buy some if we see a doughnut shop. Maybe they’ll have one in that mall we’re supposed to go to so Melody can buy
something pink.”

  Tessa rolled over on her elbow. “That’s the second time you’ve looked at me like that, Lola. What is it?”

  “It’s a story for another night.”

  “We never did get around to the one about Lester and Frankie.”

  “We will later. It’s a long time until the end of this trip, and I’ll tell you lots of stories before then. See you in the morning. I thought I’d read but I’m sleepy.” Lola yawned.

  “Good night. I’m not sleepy, so I’m going to e-mail my cousin and see how things are going at the travel agency. Will the light by the sofa bother you?” Tessa asked.

  “Not a bit. Good night, kiddo,” Lola said.

  She curled up in the corner of the sofa with the laptop on her knees and pulled up Facebook to find Clint’s name on the side.

  “Hey, what’s going on in our area of the swamp?” she typed as a private message and hit “Send.”

  “I talked to your mama and she said you are alive. Shit, girl! I thought they’d hauled you off and sold you into the sex trade,” he answered.

  “You’ve been watching too much television. They might have sold me off to be a maid, but I’m not sex trade material.” She giggled as she wrote. “Besides, what are you doing up this late? You’ve got a travel agency to run tomorrow and you are an old bear if you don’t have eight hours of sleep.”

  “Call me so I can hear your voice or we can Skype,” he wrote back.

  “Can’t. Lola is sleeping and I don’t want to wake her.”

  Little dots appeared showing that he’d seen the message, and then she saw: “Tell me about Branch. Your mama said he’s the only man on the trip. Poor guy with all you yappy women. Is he single?”

  She smiled. “Out of five people I described and told Mama about, you picked up on Branch?”

  “He’s the only male in the bunch. Is he fat and bald?”

  “He’s a tall, sexy cowboy.”

  “You have to call me tomorrow and tell me more. I want to hear your voice. I can tell more by that than words on a message.”

  She slapped a hand over her mouth to keep the giggles from echoing off the walls. “You are an old woman. I don’t know how you ever found a woman to marry you, much less stay with you five years,” she typed.

  “It’s because I’m sensitive,” he sent back.

  “Good night, Clint. I will call you tomorrow evening or the next day. Sometimes it’s difficult to get away by myself, and there’s no talking in the car with Branch on one side and my birth mother knitting on the other.”

  “You are a witch from hell” flashed on the screen.

  “Hey, I watched Steel Magnolias.”

  “Was Branch there?” Clint asked.

  “In the bed beside me.”

  “Tessa Ruth Wilson!”

  “With a teenager and my birth mother. Come on, Clint, I’ve only known him a little while. What did you expect?”

  “I like him if he watches chick flicks with you. My gorgeous wife is home from one of those baby showers. I hope it didn’t give her ideas,” Clint wrote.

  She made soft clicking noises with her tongue even though he couldn’t hear her. “Tick-tock . . . that’s the biological clock.”

  “You’re the same age I am.”

  She smiled and sent a smiley face before she shut her computer and picked up her journal.

  Day three. I’ve decided that like Melody said, I want to be like Frankie and Ivy when I grow up. They live every day like it’s their last one on earth and have so much fun. I could feel the energy in the room when they got all dolled up for their night at the casino. Don’t think I’ve ever seen two old gals so blinged out in my life. Not even Mrs. Adams, who flies to Switzerland every winter. I swear it’s only so she can show off her full-length sable coat. But this journal is supposed to be a journey into what I feel. And yet the lightness in my heart when Frankie and Ivy crawled into that limo was a feeling. And it had nothing to do with guilt.

  I felt like I’d peeled a layer of onion from the outside today when it came to Lola. She knits those pink caps for babies because she feels guilty about giving me away as a baby, but like Mama said, she’s a little broken bird. I wonder how many layers there are and what I’ll find when I reach the inside of the onion. Somehow I don’t think it will be the hardhearted woman with tats that I thought it would be three days ago. It’s not pity that I feel for her, but maybe closeness because of the guilt.

  My heart came close to jumping out of my chest today when that lady thought Branch and I was a married couple. And in that split second I let myself entertain notions about what it would be like to be his wife, to go to bed with him each night and wake up to that brilliant smile each morning, to share a life and sex with him—it was a damn heady couple of moments before I got control of it. But it did solidify the thought that I need to begin to date again. I’m ready now.

  Talking to Melody made me feel like I had a little sister. I’m glad that she couldn’t read my thoughts when she told me that that rotten boy had coerced her into sex. And it’s a good thing that thoughts can’t kill people, or they’d be toting him off to the morgue about now. I’ve never known such protectiveness to surface in me, not for anyone, except maybe Mama, and that’s so very different.

  So today, I’ve run the gamut of emotions. I’ve been a wife, a big sister, a daughter of sorts to a woman I’m beginning to understand, and a friend. Oh, and a granddaughter, too. It’s more than a little bit tiring to realize that I have no control over my feelings, that they come and go at will with no forewarning. And it’s scary as hell because I don’t like being out of control in any aspect of my life.

  Maybe that’s what Matt was saying when he told me that I wasn’t passionate enough for him. I wonder if it is because I’m adopted and there are underlying feelings of abandonment even though I’ve had the best life a woman could hope for. Is that why it’s so easy to let my guard down with this eclectic bunch of people—because the time has come for me to admit that I need to throw caution to the old proverbial wind, and let my heart out of the protected cage?

  She laid the pen to one side, closed her journal, and headed toward the other bed.

  She laced her hands behind her head and shut her eyes. And now I feel all better.

  Bullshit, a strange voice in her head said. Now you are more confused than ever, but you are beginning to understand yourself. Get some sleep. Tomorrow is a brand-new day of wonderful adventures.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Branch folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the hood of Mollybedamned. “If I’m going to stay out here in the heat and protect this gorgeous lady, then I should be on the clock.”

  “You ain’t drivin’, so clock out.” Frankie glared at him.

  “I’m following orders, so I’m not clocking out.” He shook his head from side to side.

  “We agreed that when you were behind the wheel, you were on the clock. Other than that, I’m not paying lawyer hours for a driver. Hell, Horace would drive for me cheaper than you do,” she said.

  “Then get Horace and I’ll go home,” Branch said. “But if I’m not getting paid to sit out here, then I’m going inside. I can sit in the mall where it’s cool and read a book or work on my laptop in one of those free Wi-Fi cafés,” he said.

  Tessa wasn’t sure how much was bluff and how much was real. Frankie’s eyes were twinkling and Branch had trouble controlling the grin that begged to be turned loose.

  Ivy finally got between them, her back to Branch and facing her friend. “Hell, Frankie. We’ll only be in there two hours. One of Mollybedamned’s rearview mirrors costs more than what he’ll charge you. Or think about that time you had to replace the taillight.”

  “Or the paint job if someone keys her,” Melody piped up.

  “Okay, then, but if I come out here and there’s a fingerprint on her, I’m holding you responsible,” Frankie fussed.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Branch opened the door, got comfortable in
the seat, and tilted his hat down over his eyes. “I will protect her with my life, Miz Frankie.”

  “I hate to lose a fight,” Frankie fumed.

  “Was that a fight? I thought you two were teasing,” Tessa asked.

  “They were,” Lola said. “Mama is bitchy because she hates to shop.”

  “I love to shop,” Melody singsonged. “And I’m starting in Victoria’s Secret.”

  “Sweet Jesus!” Ivy rolled her eyes upward.

  “He can’t save you from this. It’s your punishment for counting cards last night,” Lola said. “And for promising to take Melody shopping. You didn’t tell her where she could go, so now you have to go into the panty store. You could buy some bikini britches for yourselves.”

  Tessa glanced over her shoulder as they walked away from the car. Her eyes locked with Branch’s. He held up one thumb and capped it off with a wink. Those two gestures put a spring in her step.

  “So what are you, like, going to buy in the mall?” Melody swung a slim hip over and bumped Tessa.

  “Who knows? Something might catch my eye,” Tessa answered. Except that what she’d like to buy wasn’t in the store but out there protecting Mollybedamned. However, some things in life were not for sale, and she was sure Branch fell right in that category.

  “Cool air,” Lola said when they were inside the mall. “Wonderful cool air.”

  “Don’t even think about putting the top up,” Frankie scolded.

  “Who, me?” Lola acted surprised. “You know how I love the heat and sweat.”

  “Don’t be sarcastic with me,” Frankie said.

  “And here’s the store. Y’all have fun. I don’t need a thing. I’m going to wait for you on that bench right there.” Lola pointed.

  Tessa picked up a red thong on the first table in the store. “I’ll buy you each one of these. What size do you wear?”

  “Holy shit, girl!” Frankie grabbed at her heart. “That’s not underbritches. That’s a sin waitin’ to happen.”

  “Do decent women wear those things?” Ivy asked loudly.

  “Yes, Aunt Ivy,” Melody said. “I’ve got three right here in the stack of things I want and they’re all pink.”