Bring on the Rain (49 page)

~*~

The song changed to her message to him.
She felt his hands hold her tighter. It was Lonestar's Amazed. They
both knew the words; Mitch had sung them to her, on the phone, the
night before. He turned his face, his lips at her ear. Madeline
heard his breath catch with tears.

When the song ended, they were still
holding each other. Kissing, blending salty tears, and tasting the
emotion flowing out of their hearts. Embracing with arms, and hands
that held tightly. Uncaring that everyone stopped talking and
laughing, and all were watching. They drank deep and long, needing
to be intimate, inside and joined, if only by a kiss.

When they slowly separated mouths, they
gazed deeply, seeing the scorching power of love, the unwavering
depth of passion, and the guarantee both would receive a more
intimate giving of it later.

A resounding
“
Hoo—weee
!” rent
the air, and Madeline jumped! Startled.

Mitch snorted and groaned. “Here they
go.” Turning to the room, to see Lee, G.W., Jude, Doyle, and Coy
all standing on the table, beer in hand and, unfortunately, a
microphone.

She burst out laughing when they began
singing Who Let the Dogs Out, to the tune of three banjos, a
washboard, played by another man and one empty brown
jug.

Mitch was laughing so hard
his knees were bent. Madeline had to sit down right there, on the
dance floor. It was the most hilarious thing she’d ever heard.
Doyle doing the
whoo, whoo
parts, was beyond funny.

Not to be outdone, the gang
from the Tavern worked up a little routine next, with Dr.
Hook’s
Freaker's Ball
. Sometime between Nick’s, Mack the Knife, performed in a
leisure suit of pink polyester and Ashley and Ruby’s duet, of
Friends in Low Places, Madeline lay against Mitch and laughed on a
sigh, saying, “Amazing how much in common the people in our lives
have.”

“
Scary.” Mitch chuckled
helping her up off the floor. “Maybe I should get a hotel room for
us. I don't trust any of them.”

She whispered in his ear. He crowed
with mirth, going over to the microphone saying loudly, “Thanks all
of you…um… You have made our day—hell—we’ll be a year getting over
it, I’m sure. Might even take some therapy.” When the laughter died
down he said, slyly, “I wanted to remind everyone, the Vol’s game
comes on at four, and Jason has a big screen TV. And plenty of beer
and food.”

There were shouts. Everyone started
converging on Jason. Mitch saw a middle finger stuck up, over the
heads of the crowd, a clear message that Jason was thanking him for
sending that wild bunch to his house.

“
Yep.” Mitch kissed her. “It
worked.”

Pleased, they whispered to Ruby and
Ashley, to help secret out the gifts. By the time everyone realized
they were gone and Ruby was waving the bouquet, they were half way
to Copper Creek.

~*~

One Last Secret...

Everyone started cleaning up. Ruby was
to join the women, who were planning on watching chick flicks at
the old farmhouse. The Tavern was locked tight; everyone was going
somewhere, doing something to waste the day.

Ruby had gone to the restroom and
changed after her performance, into a suit of cream silk slacks and
a vest top with a low neckline. She had combed her hair and clipped
the shoulder length curls up, letting it spring around her face and
nape. When she walked to her vehicle, she tried to appear blasé at
finding Jude Coburn leaning against the van hood.

He was back into his usual black
leather and boots, wearing a matching T-shirt, and letting the
summer wind ruffle his long sun-streaked hair.

Ruby opened the side door, put her
stuff in, then reached down, pulled off her six-inch heels and
tossed them inside. Her gaze went over him. She knew he was
watching her every move in that lazy tiger-eyed way.

“
You never told anyone, did
you?” He spoke at last, when she was nearly standing in front of
him.

“
No—“

His tawny gaze scanned her face. “Thank
you.”

Her gaze was more perceptive. Her heart
nearly exploded in her chest as a realization struck
her…

However, she said only, “Did you hate
Dovie, for covering it up?”

“
Yes, in a way. I know, I
was strung out on drugs. I was a stupid young man. When I killed my
best friend…I killed something of myself. I wanted to be punished.
Nevertheless, Dovie wouldn’t have the scandal, the gossip. Out of
her misguided love, maybe…she couldn’t let me go to prison. She
pulled strings got me out of it.” His smile was hard. “I went a lot
deeper into the coke then…woke up married to Amy, with a
kid.”

“
Hmm.” Ruby agreed nodding,
but not taking her eyes off his. She knew he’d spent at least two
years on the hard stuff.

He gave her his profile a moment and
said, “I think, that’s why I got it all mixed up with Madeline,
wanting to rescue her, needing to redeem myself…wishing I was
perfect, like Mitch… Wishing I had some numbness.”

Ruby murmured, “You couldn’t stand to
be around me, because I was there, that night, I saw it, and I knew
everything?”

His gaze returned. “Yes, though I never
told Dovie you were with me.”

“
You didn’t make him OD
Jude. You didn’t make him race you in that piece of shit car he
had.”

“
Yeah… yes I did. I was the
cool guy, remember, the badass that kids like Tommy wanted to
emulate. He was a good kid until he started hanging out with me. I
influenced him. I know about that, because I wanted to be so much
like Mitch…too bad I choose to do the opposite.”

“
Maybe. But he did the coke,
got in the car, and lost control of it. I was there, riding with
you. You tried to signal him…”

Jude apparently thought of it, then
shrugged then sighed long. “Madeline is my sister-in-law now. We’ll
see each other a lot, me, and you.”

She let her brow raise. “I’m sure we
can avoid it.”

He bit the inside of his lean cheek. “I
never thought Coy would make my mistakes… have my weaknesses. I
think this big one, has straightened him out though, I think he’ll
be a good father. Better than I was.”

“
He’s got his moments. He’s
not all bad; he just let his dick rule his head.”

Jude laughed. He eyed Ruby, slowly down
and back up. “I lied to Dovie, about you too. I let her intimidate
you. I knew she’d scare you off for me.”

“
I know
that—now.”

He admitted, “I’ve been a bastard, a
real ass-hole. It’s only in the last five years I started taking a
look at myself. I felt as if Dovie dying kind of freed me, as
heartless as that sounds.”

He grunted and admitted, “I didn’t want
you around making me feel any guiltier. I shouldn’t have been
messing with you, the high-class kid. You were good for my ego, a
challenge, but still too young and I should have known
better.”

“
It happened.” Ruby shrugged
trying to sound over it. “I was too young. I was screwed up in my
way—a little obsessed.”

“
I’m sorry, about all the
shit, the pain and stuff. You were a smart kid, a good girl, and
hell…. I was a little older, I could have broken it off better.” He
admitted, “I shouldn’t have come around those times after I was
married either. Maybe Nick taking you off was for the
best.”

“
Well-we are many, many
years older. I’m a different person. So are you. “

“
Is there anything you need
from me now?” He tucked his hands in his pockets and crossed his
booted feet admitting, “I’m trying to clear things up, as much for
the kid that’s coming along, as I am for myself.”

Ruby smiled at him, resisting the urge
to shake her head. She knew how tough this all was for him. He was
a kiss-my-ass, go-to-hell kind of guy. Now, he had to think about
things a little harder, be more accountable. She knew Jude Coburn
would rather walk through fire than be vulnerable or appear in any
way weak.

She had not told Madeline the secret of
his drug habit, of his friend’s death, because she knew it was
something terrible in his life, something that had colored his
subsequent young adult years. She knew he had never told Mitch
either. The two of them, now that Dovie was dead, were the only
ones who knew.

“
Can I ask you something
first?”

“
Yeah.” He
nodded.

“
How do you feel about me
now? What do you know about me?”

“
Everything… I’ve paid
attention.” He grinned, a little sexy. “I see you all the time.” He
took his hands out of his pockets and touched her silk lapel.
“You’re kind of hard to miss.”

He laughed softly…”You stand out, Ruby
Jean Peyton. They call you the free spirit, the freethinking
artist. You got a style all your own.” He looked her in the eye. “I
always liked that. The way you think, move, work, the way your hair
goes all wild and—I like those long legs of yours.”

“
Is that an intro, to asking
me to have an affair?”

He considered her with an abashed half
grin.

Ruby had to laugh, though she said
calmly, “You’re ego is as big as your motorcycle and, your list of
conquest spans three counties. I don’t stand in line anymore, Jude…
I don’t want your left-over's. Nor, do I want to be the one chasing
you around, emotionally, or otherwise. I am looking for a man who
will commit to me, give me children. I like sex as much as anyone.
I have it on occasion, but with you, I have to pass.”

He apparently thought another moment,
nodded, and opened the van door for her.

When she got in, he leaned in the
window and told her, “Keep me on the list of prospects, Ruby Jean.”
He grinned, kissed her quickly, and straightened. “I’m in the
process of reforming.”

She nodded and started the van. She was
glancing at him when he added, “By the way…I’ve been celibate this
whole year. “

In the process of backing out, she hit
the brakes. That was a major announcement.

Leaning out the window, she asked,
“Why?”

“
So you’d
notice…”

She stared at him. “Dammit, Jude. You
know exactly how I feel.”

He swiftly closed the distance and
reached in, and put the van in park. Then he cupped her face,
kissed her hot enough to melt the paint job and pulled back saying
hoarsely, “You better goddamn still love me, Ruby Jean. Because
you’re the only one who ever saw anything worth a shit in
me.”

He swallowed, and probed her gaze with
bright topaz eyes. “You’re half the reason I’m putting myself
through this reality thing… If you don’t give me an opening, I
can’t get where I belong.”

“
You make me so damn mad…”
Ruby let herself sob out. “You let me want you all these years
without so much as a word, a hello. You always hurt me so bad,
Jude.”

He yanked the door open, pulled her
out, and took her in his arms, pinning her against the van, kissed
away her tears, and then mingled them on their lips, as they kissed
again.

By the time he pulled back, still
holding her, she was holding onto him, her face buried in his
neck.

“
Let’s get
married.”

Ruby laughed on a hiccup.
“Why?”

“
So we can have sex all
night. We had the best sex, we’re good together.”

“
Okay.”

He smiled and leaned her up so he could
look at her. “You’re crazy. Funny, crazy, peculiar, loyal, and I
need you.”

“
I know you do.” She sighed
and touched his face. “’C'mon, studly, let’s go, before my common
sense returns.”

He climbed in the van and they were
off.

~*~

The bride and groom arrived home,
holding hands and running for the bedroom. Mitch gave her his gift
from the nightstand, a quart of cottage cheese.

“
Very funny. “ Madeline
grinned dryly and stripped off her gown. “Can I interest you in
some dessert first?”

His laughter rumbled and he picked her
up and placed her on the bed. “You know I like it.”

She watched her lace undies get tossed
up, and hung on the slow-whirling ceiling fan.

Soon, there was just the feel of him,
loving her, so delicate, so deliberate, that she began to cry. Oh
God, it seemed as if she had been turning into a sap this whole
year. However, she couldn’t help it. She was happy. She was not
used to someone loving her like this, giving to her.

He paused and slid up her body, joining
their flesh with an exquisite slowness and complete
fullness.

“
Madeline Coburn,” he
whispered, looking into her damp eyes, “When I was twenty-one, you
took me inside, and it felt like I’d gone to heaven. I looked into
your eyes the way I’m doing now and I never wanted to see that
expression fade. You don’t just make love to me, Madeline. You
bathe me with a feeling I could never explain. I feel more real,
and more whole, now, when I’m inside you.”