Honky Tonk Christmas (16 page)

Molly wiped at her eyes. “Or worse yet, a red-haired boy with a temper.”

When the giggling stopped, Jenny pointed a finger at Sharlene. “It’s your turn.”

“Not yet. Momma hasn’t told us what her secret is. It’s been eight months since we’ve done this so surely she’s got something to say,” Sharlene said.

“Only thing I’m guilty of is trying to find you a decent husband. I miss our table discussions and confessions and I want you back home,” Molly said.

“And what makes you think if you did find me one that I’d be living in Corn?” Sharlene asked.

“Because you miss us as much as we miss you,” Molly said. “And if I remember right, what started this whole thing was Jenny accusing you of having a secret. So out with it.”

Sharlene’s news wasn’t any worse than Jenny being pregnant or Bart sending flowers to another woman. Or was it? Should she wait and tell her mother first or spit it out right then so she’d have the other women to help her if Molly dropped with an acute heart attack?

“I own a beer joint in Mingus, Texas. It’s called the Honky Tonk and Holt is putting an addition on it because business is so good that I’ve got customers waiting in the parking lot to get inside and my maximum load limit is below four hundred. Mingus is even smaller than Corn. And I wrote a romance novel last year and my friend knew an agent who was willing to take me on. She sold it, which is a miracle for a first time author, and now it’s coming out in November. The name of the book is
Honky Tonk Charm
and I’ve got a copy of the cover in my suitcase if you want to see it.” She said it in a hurry before she lost her nerve.

It started with a tiny high-pitched giggle from Jenny and within seconds had every woman except Sharlene roaring so loud that Judd and Tasha came in the back door to see what was so funny.

Sharlene hugged Judd up to her side. “Judd, darlin’, tell these folks where you go every day.”

“To school in the mornin’ after we eat breakfast and brush our teeth. And then after school we got to work with Uncle Holt at Sharlene’s beer joint.”

The laughter stopped as quickly as it started.

“And what do we do when you get home from school?” Sharlene asked.

“Sometimes we play outside after we have a snack in Sharlene’s house at the back of the beer joint. Well, it’s really part of the beer joint acause there’s a door from one to the other but we don’t go in the beer joint acause the television in there only gets football games and President stuff. So we have a snack in Sharlene’s house and then we go outside and play. Sometimes Sharlene takes her writin’ stuff out in the yard and sits under the tree while Uncle Holt builds the big old room for the people to… what is it they do with them sticks and them balls?”

“Shoot pool,” Sharlene said.

“Yeah, that’s it. The music boxes and the shoot pool tables are going in the new room so the rest of the beer joint can be a dancin’ place. We got a jungle gym and two swings in the trees and we live in Sharlene’s other house. You got to see it sometimes. It’s all different colors and Waylon is buried out in the yard and we have to be careful not to knock his cross down. I like the orange rocking chairs on the front porch and I like the pink windows.”

All five women stared at Sharlene like she had two heads and sixteen eyes.

“Waylon is buried?” Molly asked.

It took a ton of willpower to keep Sharlene from rolling her eyes. All that and her mother worried about a cat?

“Waylon was my cat before I met Judd and Waylon Mendoza,” she said.

“Where did you get the money to buy a beer joint? And why?” Molly asked.

“It’s a long story. A hell of a lot longer than any of your stories,” Sharlene said.

“Well, afore you begin it can me and Tasha have a drink? We’re thirsty and the other kids said they are too and they said for us to bring them out something to drink too,” Judd said.

“Of course you can, sweetheart. Granny bought a whole case of those little juice packs for you kids. I’ll load up a sack full and you two girls can pass them out. I’ve got a platter of cookies I made for afternoon snacks. You can carry them, Tasha,” Molly said.

When the children had carried their treats to the yard, Molly sat back down and pointed at Sharlene. “We’ve got at least two hours before the men come in wanting supper. So talk!”

“In the beginning God made dirt,” Sharlene teased.

“Girl, this ain’t no jokin’ matter. You get serious,” Molly told her.

She began when she first had the idea to write a story about the Honky Tonk and ended with that very day, leaving out only the small little detail of the trip to Weatherford and getting so drunk that Holt Jackson had to carry her into her hotel room. Well, that and kissing him in the barn just a couple of hours before.

“The end,” she said.

“Well, that explains a lot,” Molly said.

“Such as?” Sharlene asked.

“Why you never answer your phone after eight at night or before noon and why you’ve been so secretive about where it is you live in Dallas. Why didn’t you tell me this in the beginning?” Molly asked.

“Good lord, Momma. I was afraid you’d have a heart attack. I waited until the sisters were here so they could hold you off while I got a head start back to Mingus. I figured you’d cut a pecan switch and start beating on me,” Sharlene said.

“I can’t believe you got published that quickly!” Molly exclaimed.

She nodded. “It’s a sheer miracle, I’m telling you. And I got an option for the second one, which I will have finished by Christmas. Which reminds me, we’re having a Honky Tonk Christmas at the beer joint on Christmas Eve. Y’all want to come down to the grand opening?”

“Hell no!” Molly said.

“Momma cussed,” Fiona said.

“I always knew that if anyone could make her lose her religion it would be Sharlene,” Jenny said.

Molly held up her palms. “And Larissa just handed the deed to that beer joint and the house over to you?”

She nodded again.

“What do these places look like?”

Sharlene went to her duffle bag and brought out a small album and a manila folder. She’d put them in and taken them out a dozen times before Holt arrived that morning. First she was going to come clean with only her mother and see what kind of stinky storm that brewed up, but it didn’t work that way. Now it was out there for the whole family to see and it hadn’t been so very bad. Hopefully they wouldn’t faint dead away when she presented living proof of the story she’d just told them.

She laid them both on the table and the four sisters gathered around Molly as she opened the folder first. “Well, I’ll be danged. There’s your name right there on the front and your picture on the back.”

“I’m going to visit my friends that I met in Iraq when the book comes out. They made me promise to come to their towns and sign books for them. Four states in one week. You want to go with me?” Sharlene asked.

“I’d love to but I couldn’t. Besides, your dad would die in a week if I wasn’t here,” Molly said.

Sharlene almost choked to death. Her mother had actually said she’d like to go with her and she hadn’t said a word about the hunky man on the front cover in nothing but tight fittin’ jeans, a Texas Longhorn belt buckle, and cowboy boots.

“That hunk must be the hero. Where’s the sassy witch lady who puts a charm on everyone and then forgets to protect herself from the charm?” Fiona asked.

“Read it and find out,” Sharlene said.

“Oh, honey, I will. I intend to own it as soon as it hits the market,” Lisa said.

“I’m going to parade up and down Main Street and tell everyone that my sister is a writer,” Jenny declared.

Sharlene pinched her leg. It hurt like hell so she wasn’t sleeping. They should all be gathering firewood to burn her at the stake instead of drooling over her book cover.

“You don’t have to wait for them to be for sale in stores. I’ll have author’s copies. I’ll send you each a copy.”

“If you can do all that, by damn, I can straighten out Bart,” Fiona said.

Sharlene grinned. “That’s the spirit. And if he don’t like what you tell him, remind him that his sister has a beer joint and a house. You and the kids can move to Mingus and you can bartend for me. After you sell his farm and take all his money.”

Molly quickly shut the folder and opened the album. “Don’t you be leading these four astray.”

Her nose snarled when she saw the house. “That looks like shit.”

“Momma, two dirty words in one day!” Sharlene exclaimed.

“Well, there ain’t another word in the English language to describe that thing. And you need to paint this honky tonk. It looks like something out of a John Wayne movie instead of a modern business,” she said.

“That’s the charm. Vintage music and vintage looking building. Holt is making the new addition look just like the old part. And I love the Bahamas house. I wouldn’t dream of painting it white.”

“Well, I’m not sleeping in that place when I come to visit.” Molly pointed at the picture of the multicolored house. “I’d have to take Pepto to stop the diarrhea. I can feel my stomach grumbling just looking at the picture.”

They all giggled.

Sharlene pointed at the picture of the Honky Tonk. “You can stay in my apartment. I’ll take the sofa and you can have my bed. Maybe it won’t be too noisy for you.”

“The day I sleep in a beer joint ain’t dawned yet,” Molly huffed.

They were still talking about the beer joint when five men filed into the kitchen door but the conversations stopped and the room went silent. Claud went to the refrigerator and took out a gallon jar of sweet tea. Jeff filled glasses with ice and Matthew poured.

“What’ve you girls been doing? I see you got some pictures,” Claud said.

“I need to prepare your dad before he sees this stuff,” Molly whispered.

“We’ve been having some time with Sharlene,” Fiona said. “I’m gathering up the kids and we’re going home, Bart.”

“We haven’t had supper yet,” he protested.

“We’re eating at our house tonight,” she said.

“Why?” Bart asked.

“I’ll tell you when we get home.” She yelled out the door to Tasha to take her younger sister and brothers to the truck.

“But…” Bart started to argue.

The look Fiona gave him would have put a grown grizzly bear in the praying position. Bart knew he was in hot water. His face was a picture of pure guilt.

“Well, I suppose Fiona’s got her dander up about something.” He tried to make light of the situation. “I’ll see y’all tomorrow at noon. Enjoyed your company today, Holt. Tomorrow we’ll talk about all the carpentry we could use in this family.”

“Thank you,” Holt said.

“What was that all about?” Claud asked when they were gone. “I haven’t seen Fiona act like that in years. I thought the children tamed that temper down.”

“You ever send flowers to another woman?” Molly asked.

Holt looked at Sharlene.

She shrugged.

“No, ma’am, I ain’t that stupid,” Claud said.

“It’s a good thing,” Molly said.

“We’d best be leaving too,” Jenny told Miles.

“I didn’t send flowers to another woman. What are y’all talkin’ about? Is Fiona mad because Bart sent a bouquet to that little filly down at the bank? The woman helped him get his business checkbook straightened out. He’d made a couple of mistakes,” Miles declared.

Sharlene poked Miles in the arm. “He should have told Fiona. She’s always managed the books. If he made a mistake he should’ve owned up to it with her, not gone flirting with a younger woman. And don’t take up for him. He was wrong and he’s about to find out what happens when you’re wrong,” Sharlene said.

“Well even if he was wrong, why do I have to go home? I didn’t send flowers to anyone,” Miles said.

“Under the circumstances, I hope not,” Molly said with a chuckle.

“What are you talking about?” Miles asked.

“It’s a big surprise,” Jenny said as she made her way to the door to call their son and daughter into the house.

“You didn’t tell him yet?” Sharlene whispered in Jenny’s ear.

“No, but tonight’s the night,” Jenny answered.

“We stayin’?” Matthew asked Clara.

“I told them all about my job,” Clara said.

“You’re going to work?” Claud asked.

Matthew finished off his tea and said, “Yes, she’ll be working at the school, Dad. Teacher’s aide position came up and they asked her to fill it. What do you think?”

“That’d be between the two of you. Wouldn’t be any of my business,” Claud said.

Molly looked around at who was left. “It’s supper time. Clara, you go on and get the leftovers out and put them on the buffet table. I made a big salad to go with the cold cuts and just in case we needed it I made Sharlene a couple of extra pecan pies. Figured we could use them tomorrow if we didn’t eat them all up tonight.”

“What can I do to help?” Lisa asked.

“Go make that phone call to the Alvarez family so they’ll have plenty of time to whip up something to bring along. If you give them too short of a notice they’ll feel like they can’t come,” Molly told her. “And then you get out the plates, napkins, and cups. Holt, you and Sharlene go wipe down the tables where the kids made mud pies and put on those new plastic tablecloths. Bart, you can fill glasses with ice and Matthew, you call the kids in and make sure they get their hands all washed.”

“What about me?” Claud asked.

“You come over here and sit down on this sofa and listen to me,” Molly said.

Sharlene wasted no time getting to the backyard with a bottle of spray cleanser and a roll of paper towels. She hadn’t been this nervous when she told her father that she’d enlisted in the service. That time he wouldn’t speak to her for days. She might have heard the last words from his mouth for the next decade if her mother showed him the pictures of the Honky Tonk.

“What just happened in there?” Holt asked.

“We had our meeting of the Waverly women. Miles is about to find out that Jenny is pregnant and they weren’t planning a third child. Bart is fixing to find out that he’d best not ever send another woman flowers again. Lisa and Jeff’s son is going through puberty. Clara went to work. And I told them about my book and the Honky Tonk. Momma is cluing Daddy in right now. After the army fit, I’m not sure whether to take off for Mingus or stay and fight.”