Hell, Yeah (26 page)

“Miss it?”

“Can I set the table while you do that?” Larissa asked.

“Are you avoiding the question?”

“No, I don’t miss that place. It’s just stones and glass and lots of land. Home should be more, don’t you think?”

“Go on.” Cathy slipped noodles into the boiling water.

“Okay, I graduated from high school in Perry, went to college at OSU because it was close by. When I was a little girl my mother traveled a lot and I had a nanny and the house staff. Looking back I think the people I went to school with thought I was part of those folks instead of the ones who owned the place. Anyway, when I was twenty-one Mother transferred the funds. I set out on a holy quest to find myself. Kind of like a hippy but with funds.”

“Did you?” Cathy asked.

“What?”

“Find yourself?”

“I’m thirty this summer. I think I’m close.”

“Took you nine years?”

“It has.”

“Where did you go to do it?”

“Started with a trip around the world that took five years. I didn’t just visit places. I lived in them. Egypt. Jerusalem. Russia. England. Even a month in China back in a remote area in a convent.” She hesitated.

“And?”

“And in December I was back home in Perry and nothing felt any more right there than it did in Cairo or Moscow. Christmas was just around the corner and my old nanny had put up a tree and Mother had sent small presents. You know what’s in small presents, Cathy? I’ll tell you. Expensive jewelry. There it all was coming together for me. Turkey dinner, presents. And no family or friends. My heart and my soul weren’t satisfied. So I got out the map of the United States. Actually it’s hanging on the wall in the library along with maps of every place in the world. So I didn’t get it out but I pulled it down and played pin-the-tail on the donkey with it. I picked up one of those tacks that has a big plastic head on it, shut my eyes tightly, and decided to move wherever I stuck the pin.”

“Good God! Mingus, Texas.”

“You got it, honey. Lord, that smells good. Can you make it hurry?’

“It’s almost done. So what did you do?”

“I came down here and fought with myself. Stayed in a motel in Stephenville for a week and drove over here every day. It was horrible. I was about to decide to go to Italy and spend a month with Mother but something kept saying that I’d be sorry. So I drove through the whole damn town a dozen times a day. Finally, one day a realtor was putting a sign on some property up there a block from the post office. I stopped and asked about the house. It’s a two-bedroom built in the 30s and sits on four lots. The old couple who were selling it had to go to a nursing home. There’s a garden out back and a place for chickens but I haven’t gotten that brave yet. A stray cat came up and I adopted him. He’s black and white like that old Sylvester cat in the cartoons. I named him Stallone and he’s fitting in well.”

“So how long are you really going to stay before you figure out Mingus isn’t where you left your soul in another life?” Cathy asked.

Larissa smiled. “I already figured it out. I’m at home.”

“You say that this week. What about next week when you get really bored?”

“So far, so good. I’m happy here. Even Mother says she hears it in my voice. I get bored some days but there’s always the Honky Tonk to look forward to in the evenings. And when spring comes and I start gardening I won’t have time to get bored. Plus, you’re going to sell me this place in a few months and then my soul will really be at home.”

Cathy drained the noodles and added them to the creamy chicken mixture, quickly browned the toast in the oven, and set both on the table. “Don’t get your hopes up. You ever heard that old thing about not having wings and roots both?”

“Heard it. I’m living proof.” Larissa dipped deeply into the skillet and loaded her plate. “God, this is wonderful. And it didn’t look so difficult to make.”

“Nothing to it. Brown the chicken in butter, add a jar of already prepared Alfredo sauce from Wal-Mart, and pour it over cooked noodles. You can make this standing on your head and cross-eyed. So if Hayes Radner came in here and offered you a million dollars for your land and house to get a toehold in the place, you wouldn’t sell?” Cathy asked between bites.

“Honey, God could offer me the keys to His kingdom and I wouldn’t sell my place to Him. So what chance would Hayes Radner have? I’m at peace and I’m at home. I do not intend to sell and I’ll fight Hayes Radner until eternity dawns to keep Mingus out of his hands. He wants an amusement park, he can hustle his rich little ass on down the highway to a different town. I’ll buy the whole town right out from under him and not change a thing before I let him have it,” Larissa said.

“Mingus?” Cathy still couldn’t believe that Larissa would live there forever.

“Imagine how I felt when I drove down here and saw it the first time.”

“Like you’d fallen off the edge of the world straight into the flaming bowels of hell?” Cathy asked.

“That’s about it. You must’ve felt the same way.”

“Oh, yeah! I couldn’t believe my cousin actually liked the place and wanted to be here. It took me about six weeks to stand still long enough for roots to grow under my feet. Travis has wings. I have roots. It’s like shaking up oil and water. They do fine for about half an hour. Then they separate out again,” Cathy said.

“You got to figure that out for yourself. Can’t no one else do it for you. Listen to your heart and if it says for you to pull up your roots and fly then call me and I’ll write you a check,” Larissa said.

* * *

Travis worked until four thirty, went home and took a shower, and crawled into his bed. The pillow wasn’t soft so he beat it into submission. The comforter was too hot so he threw it off the side and then got too cold and had to put it back. He read for ten minutes but when he looked up from the pages he couldn’t remember what he’d read. He used the remote and watched an episode of
Nikita
but couldn’t keep his mind on the plot.

He didn’t hear the key in the lock or the footsteps down the hallway with the television noise but when his bedroom door opened and Cathy stood there in her cowboy boots and faded pajamas, he threw back the covers on the other side of the bed and patted the sheets.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said as she curled up in his arms.

“Me neither.”

“You don’t have to…” she started.

He kissed her softly on the forehead and shut his eyes. “I don’t even want to right now. I just want to feel you next to me. Good night, darlin’.”

She threw a leg over him and slept without dreams.

Bright, beautiful sunrays filtered through the spaces in the mini-blinds leaving stripes across the brown comforter and Cathy’s blond hair. She slept with her knees drawn up and one arm up under the pillow. Heavy eyelashes rested on her cheekbones. Travis watched her sleep and wondered how he could have ever thought she looked like the
Nikita
star. Her features were softer; her upper lip had a deeper dip in the middle. Her hair was a shade darker and she was much more beautiful.

He waved a cup of black coffee under her nose. “Sit up and drink, darlin’. When you finish that one I’ll go get another. Three cups, you said, and you are in a decent mood.”

She sat up, took the cup and sipped it, making appreciative noises the whole time. “Three cups and I don’t bite. Noon and I’m decent.”

“Or three cups and wild passionate sex?” he teased.

“Are you making an offer? If so, I’ll take the WPS now and finish the coffee later.”

He took the cup from her hands and slipped under the covers with her. “That’s an offer even the Godfather couldn’t refuse,” he murmured into her neck.

“I want long, slow kisses like in the song and I don’t intend to get out of this bed until I have to go to work at noon,” she said.

He slipped an arm under her and the other over her, rolled to one side, and looked at the clock. It was already eleven o’clock. If the lady wanted long, slow kisses then that’s what he’d deliver, but if she thought they’d stop with only that much, then she’d best think again.

Starting at her lips and working his way down, he developed a brand new respect for Trace Atkins’s song “Long Slow Kisses.”

“Sorry the bedroom candles aren’t lit but the telephone has an answering machine.” He began to hum the song as he made love to her whole body with his long, slow kisses.

When he found her lips the second time she was panting. “You’re pretty damn good at this,” she said.

“It’s easy to be good when you’ve got someone as lovely as you to work with,” he whispered softly in her ear.

His warm breath caressed the soft skin on her neck and he worked his way from ear to eyelids, the tip of her nose and down to her mouth. Sweet green tea was wonderful when she could have it in that form.

Cathy found a sensitive zone in the crook of his neck and made him groan with her soft kisses. “Woman, if you don’t stop that this party is going to be over a lot sooner than noon.”

She nibbled on his earlobe. “I forgot to allow time to get dressed so that’s okay.”

He rolled on top of her and started a rhythm so slow that the bed didn’t even rock or squeak. “Have I told you in the last five minutes that just looking at you makes me hotter’n a coal of fire in hell’s furnace?”

“Have I told you that you are makin’ me hotter’n a two-dollar hooker?”

He smiled and his eyes twinkled.

Her roots were shaken in the severe wind of falling in love with Travis Henry.

* * *

Cathy took one more swig of cold coffee and braced herself for the cold north wind when she opened the trailer door. She had ten minutes to dart across the lawn in her flannel pajamas and new goat skin cowboy boots and get dressed for work. She didn’t have time to run smack into Luther on the porch.

He looked her up and down with a serious expression on his big round face. “Was it a real date?”

She shook her head and kept walking.

“Then I’m still in the runnin’,” he said.

She could still hear his laughter after she’d closed the door to her apartment. She’d never dressed so fast in her entire life. She jerked off her pajamas and boots, threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with a bull rider on the front, and ran a brush through her hair before putting her boots back on. The clock said she still had five minutes so she took time to slap on a bit of eye makeup and apply a touch of blush to her cheeks.

At exactly noon she opened the door to the trailer to find Travis eating cereal for breakfast and Luther sitting at the table with him. Rocky and Tilman had drawn up the other two chairs to face the desk.

“Are we having a party?” Cathy asked.

“Angel hit her first well half an hour ago so I guess we are,” Luther said.

Cathy was supposed to be happy. Now the people of Mingus wouldn’t think about selling their property to Hayes Radner for an amusement park. They’d all be climbing on the oil wagon and wanting a black pumper setting in their front yards to hang Christmas lights on every year.

But she wanted to cry. The only logical thing for Amos to do would be to put Angel in charge of finding more and send Travis on to the next site. This place didn’t need two petroleum engineers and Angel was very much in love with Garrett. Roots and wings were about to be separated just when Cathy had finally admitted that she had fallen in love with Travis.

“So I guess part of us will stay and the other part will go on,” Travis said. His voice sounded hollow in his ears. Alaska didn’t look nearly as inviting as it had a few weeks before when Mingus was just a temporary stop on his way north.

Rocky pointed at the computer. “I need the latest crew list so I can do evaluations and give Amos my recommendations about who’d serve best under Angel’s new leadership. I’ve already got an idea of who all is willing to brave the cold weather up north with Travis, but I want to go over each one.”

She nodded without saying anything.

Tilman piped up, “And I need a requisition form for a couple of gear reducers. I’m on my way to Dallas to the warehouse.”

She looked at Luther.

“I came to bring the good news and to tell Travis and Rocky there ain’t no way I’m going to that cold country. I’m staying right here so, darlin’, there’s still a chance for us,” Luther said.

She pushed buttons on the keyboard and the computer spit out the forms Rocky and Tilman needed. “Does it look like it’s going to be a good one?”

“Oh, yeah. Jezzy is so excited she’s talkin’ about selling the Angus cattle and growing oil wells. I swear she’s like a little kid at Christmas,” Rocky said.

“And Leroy?” Cathy asked.

“He says he hopes she does. Says that he’s sick of this place and ready to move on. He’s thinking that he’ll go wherever Sally moves with her new husband this summer. Says he wants to be a part of his grandchildren’s lives,” Tilman said.

And us?
She wanted to ask Travis but there was no need. She couldn’t even look across the bar at him for fear he’d see the hurt in her eyes.

“Is Amos out there yet?” Cathy asked.

“He’s on the way. Says it surprised the hell out of him and he’s a believer now that Angel has the gift,” Luther said. “Hurry up, man. You can ride out there with me. We’re all takin’ a few hours off tonight and hittin’ the Honky Tonk soon as it opens to celebrate.”

“Want to come along?” Travis asked Cathy. His heart was a lump of stone in his chest and it was difficult to breathe around it. She hadn’t made any gesture toward him when she came back. Luther had known they’d spent the night together and teased him unmercifully until they heard her on the porch. What were the last few days to her? What were they to him? They’d both known from the beginning he’d only be there a couple of months. How had things gotten so complicated?

“No, it’s y’all’s party. Go on. I’ll work here until quittin’ time and then get the Honky Tonk ready for a blowout,” she said around the lump in her throat.

“Hurry up, man. Don’t you remember how you felt the first time you brought in a well? And here she is just out of the chute, high on love and everything is working out for her. We need to be out there to congratulate her,” Luther said.

Travis made a trip back to his bedroom, shoved his feet into work boots, and put on his old stained work coat. The bed was still a tangled mess and the room smelled like her perfume. He touched pillow where her face had left an indentation and a lump the size of a grapefruit closed off his throat. Why did this have to happen today? He’d prepared himself that they’d have to separate but it was supposed to be two weeks down the road, not today. Not after they’d made love and after he’d admitted to himself that he’d just plumb fallen in love with her.

“Did you go back to sleep?” Luther called down the hallway.

“I’m on my way,” he said when he wanted to say that he wasn’t going anywhere without Cathy.

She had her eyes glued to the computer when he got back to the office. “Tell Angel I’m very happy for her.”

“See you tonight.” Travis stopped and kissed her on the forehead.

She was glad that he hadn’t wanted to talk. Words would have brought tears and he would not see her cry. She’d known from the beginning that the job wasn’t permanent and neither was Travis. Why didn’t that stop her from falling in love with him?

* * *

The Honky Tonk was alive with energy that night. All the rig workers were there, along with Amos and his bikers who’d heard that his crew had sunk a good well in virgin territory. Garrett and Angel were walking around with their feet six inches off the ground and spent the whole evening wrapped up in each other’s arms on the dance floor instead of wagering bets on the pool table.

Larissa took her place behind the bar to help make drinks and draw beer. It was midnight before she or Cathy had a two-minute stretch of time to talk about anything but piña coladas, margaritas, buckets of beer, and who had time to unload and reload the dishwasher.

“Hey, you got a minute?” Travis asked from the end of the bar where he’d been sitting since right after ten.

“Yes, but it belongs to me,” Larissa said. “But I’ll be nice. Go on, darlin’. Take as long as you need. I’ll man the bar a few minutes by myself.”

Cathy propped her elbows on the bar in front of Travis. “What time did you get here? I’ve been so busy I didn’t know straight up from backwards.”

“Just a few minutes ago. I’ve been watching you. Larissa took my order. Y’all didn’t even realize that she worked this end and you got the other one. You do well together.”

Cathy smiled through the pain in her heart. “So do we.”

“We do, don’t we? Well, maybe you’ll come to Alaska to see me? I’ll call often and email you. We aren’t going to lose touch, Cathy. I’ll be back when Garrett and Angel get married.”

“Do you know something I don’t?”

“No, but it’ll happen. They’re in love,” he said hoarsely.

She nodded toward the jukebox where Mark Chestnutt was singing “Old Country.” The lyrics said that she used to want to climb the walls and had never been loved at all until old country came to town.

“You sayin’ I should come around every now and then?” he asked.

“I reckon it would be nice. When are you leaving?”

“In about ten minutes.”

Ten minutes! The room spun around in psychedelic waves of color as she held onto the bar to keep from fainting. God Almighty, she was going to fall to pieces right there in the Honky Tonk.

“Want to dance?” he asked.

“Don’t dance with customers. Remember?”

“I’ll be at my folks for a couple of days and then I’ll fly to Anchorage.” Their gazes locked in the middle of bittersweet sparks.

Mark’s song played on the jukebox for the second time. Dancers were swaying to the music. A few were kissing; some were talking. Merle and Luther were in a heated discussion over a pool shot. Tinker kept watch over the whole bunch. Everything was completely normal so why was Cathy’s heart shattering like a glass window breaking when a baseball hits it?

Travis tossed back the last of his beer, leaned across the bar, and brushed a soft kiss across Cathy’s lips. “You are something special.”

She touched her lips. “To hell with rules.”

She pushed through the swinging doors and walked into his waiting arms. “Dance with me one more time?”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and she laid her face next to his chest. She had less than four minutes to make enough memories to last forever. Seconds ticked off the clock with each word and left her heart in pieces as the song came to an end. When it was over he kissed her hard just like he’d done on New Year’s.

“Hell yeah,” she whispered.

He laid his fingers on her lips. “You’ve got my cell phone number.”

“And you’ve got mine.”

He looked deeply into her eyes and then walked out of the Honky Tonk.

Cathy watched until the door closed then spun around and went back to drawing beers behind the bar. It was over, severed quickly and abruptly. The pain began when he disappeared out into the night. The reality of him being out of her life would come later.

“Well, you broke one rule,” Amos said. “Give me one of those martinis that Larissa says is so good. Might as well celebrate being wrong.”

“About what?” Cathy said.

“Many things for many years. You are a hell of a lot more like Ruby than I figured, girl. You just might stay here like she did until they carry your body out. Just remember that brag don’t come free. It’s costly.”

“Amos, I don’t only know it, I feel it. Now what are you wrong about other than my love life?”

“Mostly, we’ll celebrate the fact that Travis was right when he said Angel was a damn fine petroleum engineer. She’s going to be a big asset to my company. And now she and Garrett can set a date for their wedding. I’m going to leave the office where it is for a few months, then decide whether to put the permanent office in Mingus or Gordon. We’ll see which way the new findings take us. Oh, and Maggie refused to come to Mingus. She said I could fire her before she’d live in a place this small. She’s got two little boys who have violin lessons and play soccer and all those things. Anyway, there’s a lady in my Dallas office who said she would love a change of scenery so she’ll be here starting Monday. Her name is Tessa and I expect she’ll be in and out of the Tonk since she likes to dance. Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure the Honky Tonk being this close is what’s bringing her to the area. She’ll be moving into the trailer. Tomorrow can be your last day and you can go back to your old routine.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Amos sipped the martini. “Larissa was right. This is a good martini.”

“Hey, could I get a pitcher of Coors down here?” A man waved from behind two ranchers who’d been sitting at the bar most of the evening.