A Forever Thing (23 page)

She took Tina’s hand in hers. “Let’s go buy some candy bars now
that we’ve eaten right. You got a favorite kind?” she asked Theron
as she picked up her purse and rustled around in it for loose change.

“Snickers. Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

“No reason,” she said. Snickers was her favorite also. She’d kept
miniatures in her desk drawer at school.

They walked down the hallway hand in hand, and Fancy let
Tina put the money into the vending machine. They bought three chocolate bars, a bag of gummy bears, two sodas, and a container
of milk for Tina.

“Cute little girl, but she must look like her father,” a lady said
when they passed her on the way back to the room.

“Thank you,” Fancy said. It didn’t hurt to pretend. She’d never
see the woman again. “She does look like her father’s side of the
family.”

“She’s a doll, no matter who she looks like.” The lady unlocked
the door across the hall and went inside.

“Who’s that?” Tina whispered.

“Just a sweet little lady who’s probably missing her granddaughter,” Fancy said as she knocked on their door.

Theron threw it open and returned to the bed. While Tina
munched on the gummy bears and sipped her milk, Fancy ate a
candy bar.

“It’s worse than I thought but better than it could be,” Theron
said.

“What’s that?”

“Tina, you want to watch some more cartoons?”

“Yes, yes, yes. About the dogs and cat?”

Fancy surfed a few minutes but couldn’t find another channel
playing anything about cats. She did find an old Scooby-Doo movie
on the Disney Channel, though, and that excited Tina. She grabbed
her doll and bear and crawled up onto the bed.

Theron took Fancy’s hand and led her to the other bed. Both of
them sat down on the side away from Tina. He laced his fingers in
hers and held on tightly.

“Maria had a terrible time giving birth and wouldn’t even hold
the baby. Her mother says she never did bond with her and that
three weeks after Echo-she calls her that instead of Tina-was
born, Maria went back to work at two jobs. Kayla kept Echo,
only she hated the name, so she’s the one who started calling her
Tina.”

Fancy listened intently, shocked all over again at Tina’s sad
childhood. But she couldn’t help noticing how perfectly her hand
fit into Theron’s and how, even in the midst of her sadness, it made
her feel bonded to him.

“Kayla’s place of work had a day-care center available,” Theron
finished, but he kept Fancy’s hand in his.

“So what do you do now?”

“Hire a lawyer. Do a DNA test. Change her name to Warren.
Raise her.”

“You make a pretty tough job sound simple,” Fancy said.

“Well, I’ve got a really big favor to ask of you,” he said.

Fancy looked at him.

“Tina knows and likes you, and, well, you’re not working right
now. Could you please keep her for me for a few days until I can
find a good day-care center for her? I could drop her off on my way
to school and pick her up as soon as I can get away afterward,” he
said.

She continued to look at him while her mind said no. A clean
break from the little girl would be infinitely easier than saying
good-bye after getting even more attached to her.

Her mouth said, “Of course I will. She’ll have to go to the beauty
shop with me on the days I fix hair, but we’ll be fine.”

Joe Frank had built the house fifty years before with the best
foundation, wood, and labor that money could buy. It had been
constructed to stand for a lifetime, and with every board that went
into the framework, he had looked forward to the sounds and
laughter of children filling the place. But that had never happeneduntil Theron opened the door and led Tina into the massive great
room.

He tried to see it through her eyes. Oak hardwood floors in the
living and dining area, a long table with ten chairs around it reflected in the glossy finish. A huge window overlooked the backyard where Joe had planned to watch birds and deer with his wife
and children. One wall of the living area featured a stone fireplace, the mantel decorated with only one picture: that of Joe and
his new bride on their wedding day. An enormous rug in shades of
mint green and burgundy stretched from the edge of the fireplace,
under the leather sofa and oversized recliner, back to the bookcases at the other end of the room. The kitchen had never been
updated. Oak cabinets, white double sink, white stove and refrigerator. But it had character, so the thought of replacing any of it
had never entered Theron’s mind.

“This is your new home,” he said softly to Tina.

Her gaze moved from one place to the other, taking in everything. “Who lives here?” she whispered.

“You do and I do”

“Where’s Fanny?”

He squatted down in front of her and laid a hand on her shoulder. “She lives in her own house in town. You are going to stay with her during the day while I work. Tomorrow we will go to
church, and you’ll see her there. The next day I have to go to work
at the school, and you will stay with Fancy. Would you like to see
your new room?” he asked.

He hoped for a “yes, yes, yes.”

He barely got a nod.

He led her down the hallway to the bedroom right across the hall
from the one he’d chosen when he moved into the house. A brightly
colored quilt in pastel shades of pink, yellow, and mint green covered
the four-poster bed. A lamp sat on a white crocheted doily on the
nightstand. The matching dresser with a triple mirror stood waiting
for someone to finally use the drawers. The walls had been painted
bright yellow at one time, but they’d faded to a pale shade that brightened prettily when the sun filtered through the lace curtains on the
windows.

“We can put your toys in here and all your new things in the
closet,” Theron said.

“It’s so big,” Tina said.

“What? The bed? Would you like a smaller one?”

She waved her hands around. “All of it”

“Yes, it is a big house”

Her face finally brightened. “Kids? Where are they?”

“There are no other kids, Tina. Just me and you. Are you hungry?”

She shook her head and took a deep breath. She removed her
hand from his and took a few steps forward, carefully touched the
quilt, and then laid her doll on the pillow.

“She likes it,” she said.

“I’m glad.” He had had no idea how she would react to the house.
The cabin had been small and the motel room not even that big.
She’d been raised in a trailer, from what he understood. When he
had opened the front door, he had seen some fear in her eyes, but
when she put the doll on the bed, he figured she’d managed to accept the place as it was.

“Why don’t you get up there beside her, and I’ll bring in your
things? We’ll put them away, and then we’ll go outside and check
on the cats and cattle.”

“Kitties! Yes, yes, yes!” She clapped her hands.

Those words convinced him that they’d make it through the day
and night. After that she’d start to feel more at home, and everything
would be fine. She seemed remarkably resilient for such a little thing.
She’d adjust to her surroundings, and he’d adjust to having a child.
He hoped Uncle Joe had a lucid day or two so he could tell him that
laughter now rang through the house.

Fancy had kissed Tina on the forehead before she got out of Theron’s truck at Hattie’s house. Then she had carried her duffel bag into
the house and tossed it into her bedroom. She’d turned up the heat
and thrown herself down on the sofa. She didn’t even care if Hattie
rose up from the ashes and gave her an evil glare about putting her
muddy feet on the sofa. The “80s Ladies” ringtone suddenly turned
her purse into a jukebox. Without getting up, she fished inside it and
found her cell phone.

“Hello, Momma,” she said.

“Are you home?”

“I’m at Granny’s. It will never be home, but I’ve got my dirty
shoes on the sofa,” she said.

“Is her ghost glaring at you?” Gwen giggled.

Fancy looked up and then shuddered. “I don’t see it,” she whispered.

“Are you alone?”

“Unless Granny’s ghost is hiding under the couch.”

“No Greek god to set your heart racing or little girl to make
your biological clock tick louder?”

“Theron is no Greek god, Momma. He’s barely taller than me”

“Blond hair?”

“Brown.”

“Blue eyes?”

“Green.”

“Hmm. Certainly not the original man of your dreams, is he?
How about your biological clock? Is it driving you crazy?”

“Don’t you read the tabloids at the checkout counter? Movie
stars have babies when they’re in their forties now. I’ve got lots of
time. Somehow I don’t think you called to tease me, did you?”

“No, it just came out. Are you still planning on having lots of kids
someday?”

“I’m going to have a dozen,” Fancy said quickly.

“Tick-tock, tick-tock.”

“I told you, forties”

“Your twelfth one at forty isn’t so bad. Your first of twelve is
pushing it,” she teased. “Oh, and one more thing. Les has bought us
a two-week cruise for Christmas. Leaving a week before Christmas
and coming home the day after New Year’s. Want to go with us?”

Tears welled up. A lump the size of a grapefruit formed in Fancy’s throat.

“Are you going to answer me? Is your non-Greek god going to
keep you in that godforsaken land of mosquitoes and mesquite
trees?” Gwen asked.

“No, he’s not, but I’m not going with you. For the first time in
your married life you two are going on a vacation by yourselvesthe honeymoon you never had because there was a sulky teenager
in your lives. I’m staying right here and helping Sophie get through
her last holidays with Aunt Maud. You go, and if you have one
guilty feeling about leaving me behind, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” Gwen asked.

“Cry. And then you’ll feel guilty.”

“Okay, then come home for a few days when we get back?”

Fancy’s heart lay in shambles on the floor in front of the sofa.
“With bells on. And I expect to see tons of pictures.”

Gwen hung up, and Fancy looked around for a black cat. One
seemed to be around every time something crazy-bad happened.
She would have bet one had just walked across the porch. Just because she couldn’t see it didn’t mean it wasn’t close by.

The house began to warm, so she sat up and removed her dirty
shoes and jacket. She went to the bedroom and dumped everything
in the duffel bag onto the floor, where she sorted it into two piles
for laundry. She picked up the white things and carried them to
the utility room and stuffed them into the washing machine.

Then there was nothing to do.

Bright sunshine continued to melt the last vestiges of ice. She
put a CD in her player and turned up the volume. She didn’t want to be reminded of the days she’d spent in the cabin with ice everywhere. Sara Evans sang about looking into those blue eyes and
hearing nothing but lies while Fancy two-stepped with an invisible
partner who was the same height and size as Theron Warren.

Sara sang a song called “Three Chords and the Truth.”

The truth? What was it? Was her mother right even in her teasing?

“When did I fall for him?” she asked herself aloud; then she fell
back onto the sofa again. “I can’t have fallen for him”

But you did, and now what the devil are you going to do about
it?

“Fall the other way,” she said.

It don’t work that way, girl.

“Then I’ll just have to live with it and do the best I can. He’s not
interested in a wife or a forever thing, and I won’t settle for anything less.”

She dragged herself to the kitchen and made a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich. She ate it standing up at the kitchen sink watching
a cardinal searching for food in the backyard. The bright red bird
brought on a vision of Tina’s excitement at feeding the birds at the
cabin.

Sara continued to sing in the background, and the lyrics to every
song seemed to speak to Fancy. Finally she turned the music off
and decided to have a long bath and a nap. She sank down into the
tub of water and tried to let the warmth penetrate her bones, but she
was so antsy that she quickly got out and wrapped a towel around
herself. She padded barefoot on the cold floor to the bedroom,
where she dragged out a pair of warm flannel pajamas that were at
least a size too big. She should have cut the legs off and hemmed
them when her secret Santa at school gave them to her two years
before, but she’d lived in Florida, where she never wore flannel.
She rolled up the hems of the pants and the sleeves of the top.

It was seven o’clock, but it was already dark out. She couldn’t
take a nap that late, or she’d be awake until the wee hours of the
morning. She picked up a book and carried it to the living room.
J.A. Jance could entertain her until bedtime.

She’d barely fallen asleep when the alarm went off. She forced her eyes open, expecting to see sun rays drifting in through the
curtains, but it was still dark. She reached to hit the snooze button,
only to find that it was three o’clock in the morning and not eight.
She figured she must have been dreaming, so she put the pillow
over her head and tried to go back to sleep. In five minutes the noise
started again, and she realized it was her cell phone. She hustled out
of bed and down the hall and barely answered it before it stopped
sounding.