Then there were some who even tried to take pictures of me. Pictures of the stool pissed everyone off but we got used to it, as long as they bought a drink or two, we let it slide. When they tried to take a photo of me that was a different story. It pissed Morrie and Dad off when they tried it. It pissed Darryl off more. They pointed their camera or cell phone at me, they were shown the door, usually by Darryl. Sometimes, they were shown the door in a not very nice way, again usually by Darryl. A couple of times, it was so not nice, they called the cops. Unsurprisingly, any cop that showed up to that call arrived and they weren’t in a very good mood when they did. Not at Darryl, at tourists doing stupid shit that fucked up their day. The cops didn’t tend to spend a lot of time explaining their bad mood before they explained where the town line was and asked if the tourist wanted an escort there. The tourists usually declined their offer at an escort but took them up on the directions.
I hung up the dress, grabbed my bag, exited the dressing room and Phylenda, April, Danny and I walked to the cash register.
When I handed over my credit card, Phy asked, “You gonna let me in on your sudden need to have a fancy tight dress?”
I turned to her and didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, I figure I better wear fancy tight dresses while I got the chance, seein’ as, in a few months, I’ll be big as a house.”
Phy wasn’t one to show her emotions, she didn’t give much away. She’d learned to hold things close and not expose anything, give anyone a weapon they might use against her.
But Phy was changing. Nearly losing her man a different way and him being made into a hero by town’s talk and his own actions had a way of doing that. Darryl did what he did and he showed his true self, maybe late, but he did it. She found herself in the position of having a man who she could be proud of and her kids having that kind of father. For years, Darryl’d been working hard to show her he was that man but she couldn’t ever trust it. He put his life on the line to save mine and that was different. She wasn’t used to being able to hold her head up high but I could tell she was getting used to it and I could also tell she liked it a lot.
Therefore, when she read my meaning, her eyes went wide then they grew wet.
“You’re serious?”
“Doc told me today.”
“How far along?”
“Ten weeks.”
Phy blinked, I giggled, leaned close and whispered, “Yeah, I think it happened the first time we did it.”
She whistled and said, “Shee-it, Colt’s swimmers must be super-powered.”
I didn’t doubt that, practically everything about Colt seemed super-powered.
I signed the receipt, took the bag and we headed into the mall, making a bee-line toward Jessie’s favorite shoe shop.
“I’m scared,” I told Phy, my eyes on the kids who were wandering ahead of us aimlessly, taking in all they could around the mall, probably wondering what they could ask their Mom to buy them that she wouldn’t say no to.
“Why?” Phy asked and I looked at her.
“I’m not exactly twenty anymore.”
“Women havin’ babies later and later, seems to work for them.”
I looked back at Danny and April. “Yeah, maybe so, but doesn’t seem much works for me and Colt.”
I jumped when Phy’s arm went around my waist and I looked back to her. She wasn’t open and she wasn’t touchy either but now she was close.
“Feb, that was then and this,” she put her other hand to my belly, “is now.”
I pressed my lips together and I felt my own eyes get wet.
She smiled at me as I breathed deep.
Then she dropped her hands, shouted at her kids and we turned into the shoe shop.
* * * * *
“What’s the big to do?” Dee asked, arms crossed, eyes on me, much like Jessie and Meems (though their arms weren’t crossed), all of us scrunched into Mimi’s little office at the back of her coffee shop. “I gotta get back to the bar.”
“Jeez, Dee, you act like that bar’ll crumble to the ground, you’re not in it,” Jessie muttered and Dee swung her eyes to Jessie.
“Yeah, well, I love Darryl, we all love Darryl, we all know why we love Darryl, that don’t mean Darryl can hold down the fort without a little help,” Dee retorted, being generous with her words for, hero or not, once Darryl recovered and got back to work a couple of weeks ago, he had not, unsurprisingly, changed. “Ruthie’s on vacation, Cheryl’s not on until seven, Morrie’s at home with the kids, Jackie’s watchin’ Ned’s babies and Jack’s in the office, payin’ invoices. Not to mention, Feb’s here, actin’ weird and goin’ shoppin’ with Phy, of all people.”
“Yeah,” Jessie’s eyes swung to me and they held accusation clear as day. “Why’re you shoppin’ with Phy?”
“She has the day off and she needs to get out of the house every once in awhile,” I told Jessie.
“But I’m your shopping buddy,” Jessie told me. “Phy’s your movie buddy.”
Since the incident I had taken to spelling Phy’s nursemaiding Darryl by taking her to the movies. When I did this whoever was available, Mom, Dad, even Colt, watched over Danny and April and also Darryl.
“Today, Phy’s my shopping buddy,” I said to Jessie.
“Well, don’t think I’m gonna be your movie buddy. I don’t like goin’ to the theater. You can’t pause the movie if you all of a sudden find you want some Raisinettes,” Jessie decreed.
“Can we get to the point of why Feb’s asked us here at all?” Mimi put in.
“Yeah, I gotta get back,” Dee repeated.
“You said that,” Jessie told her.
“All right, guys,” I cut in, “eyes on me.” When they turned me, I went on. “You have to swear, I tell you this, you keep it a secret, no one, no husbands, no friends, no parents, no sisters, you tell no one, not until nine o’clock tomorrow morning. Got me?”
Their faces had all changed, gone curious and expectant. They were getting used to a February Owens who shared and I found they liked it a whole lot. Since they did, I also found I did it a whole lot more.
“Colt asked you to marry him,” Mimi breathed her very wrong guess.
“Hallelujah!” Dee shouted before I could confirm or, more accurately, deny.
“I get to be Matron of Honor!” Jessie screeched.
Before I could say word one, Mimi turned to her and demanded to know, “Why do you get to be Matron of Honor?”
“I found her first,” Jessie said to Mimi.
“So? You got to be my Matron of Honor and Feb got to be your Maid of Honor and that means I get to be Feb’s Matron of Honor,” Mimi returned.
“Guys,” I tried to interrupt.
Jessie ignored me and said to Mimi, “Yeah, but I still found her first.”
“What you’re sayin’ is, I’m forty-two years old and I’m gonna die not bein’ anyone’s Matron of Honor?” Mimi retorted.
“Guys,” I repeated.
“It ain’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Jessie told her.
“Yeah, so, why you want it so bad?” Meems shot back.
“Guys!” I shouted. “Colt didn’t ask me to marry him. I’m pregnant!”
Everyone’s gaze came to me then they froze.
“What’d you say?” Dee whispered.
“I’m ten weeks pregnant.”
They all stared at me then Meems burst into tears, came forward and yanked me out of my chair and into her arms. Then I felt Jessie get close then Dee, everyone holding onto everyone and Jessie and Dee jumping up and down a bit.
I felt their jumps, their arms, their tears that were now coming through laughter and I suddenly wondered what Angie would have done, she’d lived to see this day. Angie, who knew how I felt about Colt before anyone because I’d confided it to her when we were eleven. Angie, who’d called me and patched things up the minute she heard Colt took me on our first date.
Angie’s life may have worn her down before it was snuffed out but I reckon this new
s would have lightened the load more than a little even if for just a short time. I didn’t know what to do with that knowledge so, like a lot of shit, I set it aside until there came a quiet time where I could give it to Colt, he could give me a squeeze or a kiss or do something else that only he had the magical power to do and the pain of it would melt away.
They pulled back but all of them kept a hand on me.
“Colt doesn’t know?” Jessie asked.
I shook my head. “We’re goin’ to Costa’s tonight.”
“Perfect,” Dee whispered, tears still shining in her eyes.
“Yeah,” I whispered back, looking at Dee then at Jessie then at Meems, feeling their touch light on me, seeing the wet glistening on their cheeks, their smiles full of joy for me, for Colt, for our future, a future that was bright and I finished with, “Perfect.”
* * * * *
“Thanks for doin’ this,” Colt said to Cheryl as they walked up the front walk to Ned’s house.
“No worries,” Cheryl replied, her eyes on the door.
She’d cut her hair shorter so it just brushed her shoulders. She also regularly wore mini-skirts and high-heeled shoes even working at the bar. Both were her style and both looked good on her. So good, Feb said that Cheryl told her tips at J&J’s were better than her tips stripping. This probably had something to do with the fact that J&J’s was busier than ever seeing as it now was infamously famous and also seeing that neither Feb nor Cheryl were hard to look at, which meant the standard clientele had upped substantially.
“How’s Ethan gettin’ on in his new school?” Colt asked.
So she didn’t have to drive to town from Indy and also drive back in the dead of morning Cheryl had moved into Morrie’s apartment with Jack and Jackie who spent most of their time at Morrie and Dee’s or J&J’s anyway, often looking after Ethan along the way.
“Likin’ it, made some friends, has play dates, friends sleepin’ over, sleepin’ over at friends. He’s at a play date now,” she replied then her neck twisted and she pressed her lips together before she stopped on the front stoop and looked up at Colt. “Moms here know me as workin’ at J&J’s, not a strip club. Got no problem, their kid hangin’ with someone whose Mom works at J&J’s. Back then… well, goes without sayin’, a stripper’s house isn’t the popular choice for a play date.”
“That’s good,” Colt said quietly.
“Yeah, it is,” Cheryl said readily and looked him straight in the eye. “You ain’t gonna like hearin’ this but I gotta say it and I’ll only say it once, yeah?”
Colt figured she was right; he wouldn’t like hearing what she had to say. He’d discovered that when Cheryl wasn’t guarded, and even when she was, she was a straight talker. She was usually pretty cautious with this around Feb, Colt, Morrie, Dee, Ruthie, Jack, Jackie and Darryl, mostly because she liked them all and never guarded against showing that. But she didn’t hesitate unleashing her straight talk on customers. Feb said it was a good trait to have working at a bar but then again, Feb took one look at Cheryl, who’d come into the bar with her son Ethan, and a half second later Feb planted Cheryl firmly under her wing just as Colt suspected she would. Colt figured Cheryl could do just about anything and Feb would accept it.
“Yeah?” Colt prompted, wanting to get it over with, whatever it was.
“He was a crazy, fucked up mess and he did awful shit but, in a way, he led me out of a trap I couldn’t find my way out of and probably never would. I ain’t grateful to him, I’m grateful to you, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s what brought me here.”
“You brought yourself here,” Colt told her, not giving Denny an inch, no credit, not for any of the good shit that he’d been the undeniable catalyst for kicking off. That sick ass didn’t deserve any and Colt was firmly of the belief that eventually, somehow, for everyone, even Cheryl, it would have all found its way to good without Denny. “You could have made a different decision.”
She just looked at him and remarked, “Not real good at acceptin’ gratitude, are you, Colt?”
Colt gave it back to her straight. “Not real good at talkin’ about Denny Lowe.”
She nodded in understanding. “Like I said, just this once, no more.”
Before Colt could say anything else, Jackie opened the door.
“Get in here quick,” Jackie said, pushing open the screen. “They’re asleep, miracle I got them both down. We time it right, Colt and I can be done and back before they wake up.”
“It’s cool, Jackie, Ethan was a handful, got up to more than three kids. I can handle it,” Cheryl told her, pushing in.
Jackie gave Colt a look that spoke volumes about Ned’s now motherless children and she showed Cheryl around the house, giving instructions as they went. They put their heads into the kids’ room and as all this was happening Colt waited in the living room. When they came back, Jackie and Colt said good-bye to Cheryl and Colt led Jackie to his truck.
When they were on their way, Jackie took in a breath and asked, “You talk to Susie?”
Colt didn’t want to think about Susie. Darryl, Phy, Marty and Joe-Bob’s kids had all handled what happened remarkably well, throwing no blame, which was good since only blame could be settled was on a dead man so it was a waste of emotion. Melanie had been a wreck which wasn’t a surprise. She was in counseling and Colt checked on her a couple of times a week, mostly because Feb nagged him to do so, though if she hadn’t, he still would have done it just maybe not as often. Melanie had been off work for awhile but had finally gone back. She was pulling herself together, she was doing it slowly, which was her way, but at least she was doing it.
Susie, being Susie, hadn’t handled it so well.
“I talked to her.”
“She the one who gave it to that kid from The Star?” Jackie asked.
“Yeah,” Colt answered.
Jackie sighed then said softly, “People work things out in different ways.”
Jackie was wrong or, more likely, she was being generous. Susie wasn’t working anything out. Susie was, as usual, being a bitch.
The only thing that surprised him was the stories printed in The Star laid out the truth about Feb and Colt as far as Susie knew it but there was nothing ugly, nothing mean. Colt figured the way Feb had a lock on the unconscious Susie, clearly in shock, so much, after they took down Denny, they had a job of getting Feb to let her go, Susie absorbed something good from Feb. It was a fanciful notion but since Susie didn’t have many not ugly, not mean bones in her body that was the only way he could figure it.
Jackie changed the subject and remarked, “Don’t know why you aren’t takin’ Jack or Morrie.” She looked from the road to Colt and said, “You know I like me a bike, honey, but pickin’ a Harley is man’s work.”
“We aren’t lookin’ at bikes, Jackie,” Colt told her then pulled into a spot on the street in front of Reinhart’s Jewelry Store, stopped and turned off his truck.
She looked out her window to the store then she looked at Colt then back at the store.
He knew she’d cottoned onto the situation when she dropped her forehead to the window and whispered, “You shoulda brought Cheryl. My fingers are bigger than Feb’s.”
“Your taste’s the exact same, though.”
It was a lie. Jackie’s taste was nothing like Feb’s. She knew it and he knew it. Colt just wanted her there. He knew she knew that too and it took a beat but he heard the hitch in her throat that meant tears and he put his hand to her back.
“Jackie, look at me.”
She took her time but she turned to look at him, tears in her eyes but a shaky smile on her face.
“You know, I was honored, dancin’ the mother’s dance with you at your and Melanie’s wedding,” she whispered.
“Yeah, you told me then.”
He could barely hear her when she said, “I’ll like this one better.”
Colt didn’t say a word before she turned and was out the door and heading to the store.
/> This was partly because she moved fast.
This was mostly because he couldn’t speak around the lump in his throat.
* * * * *
“All right, you got us both, what’s this about, son?” Jack asked when Morrie closed the office door at J&J’s.
Jack was in the desk chair. Morrie had his shoulders to the door. Colt had his shoulders to the wall.
Colt didn’t mince words. “Just got back from Jackie helpin’ me pick out Feb’s engagement ring.”
Morrie turned and slammed his palm against the wall, giving a whoop.
Jack dropped his head and stared in his lap.
Colt ignored Morrie and called, “Jack.”
“Out,” Jack muttered.
“Dad?” Morrie called.
“Out,” Jack repeated and they both heard it.
Colt looked at Morrie to see Morrie was looking at him. Without another word, they walked out.
Ignoring the fact that they left Jack in the office crying, something they’d never seen in their life and something they were both pretty fucking happy they hadn’t really seen then, Morrie asked Colt, “You wanna beer?”
“Nope, got shit to do.”
Morrie scooted behind the bar and Colt stopped at the side of it.
“You told Sully?” Morrie asked.
Colt’s felt his brows draw together and annoyance hitting him. “Before I told you and Jack?”
“Just askin’,” Morrie muttered.
“Shit, Morrie, seriously?”
“Already did best man duties at one of your weddings. I figure –”
One of his weddings?
“Don’t fuck with me, Morrie,” Colt warned.