The Dixie Belle's Guide to Love (18 page)

“Better how? Better for you or better for everyone who relies on you to ease their way in life?”

“Better at the Palace for starters. If I can improve things there, then maybe I can build on that momentum and…”

“How can you make things better at the Palace? Start providing decaf coffee?”

“That’d cause a riot.”

“Bottled water?”

“Oh, yes, big demand for that in Hellon, I imagine.”

“Maybe put little packets of wet napkins on every table? Better how?”

“Just better.” Though she did like that wet-napkin idea and made a note to look into it. “I’ll do what I can, and you’ll see.”

“What, Mom? What amazing new innovation could you have come up with to use in the Palace?”

Amazing innovations in the Palace? She and Will had come up with so many—and not a one of them fit to describe to her daughter. Rita put the back of her hand to her cheek and sighed. She dared not let herself get carried too far away with thoughts of making love last night in the dreamy lights from the makeshift stage. “Oh.”

“Oh what?”

“I just remembered. That is, I just came up with a terrific idea for something absolutely new and challenging I can bring to the Palace.”

“How about bringing in a new owner?” Her sweet voice rang with hope, not harassment.

“How about karaoke?”

Lacey Marie groaned.

“What? What’s wrong with that?”

“Have you ever seen people doing that?”

“Only on TV and movies where they play it up all hokey and horrible.”

“They are being kind.”

“How do you know?”

“There are at least half a dozen bars around Memphis that have those machines, Mom.”

“And when were you in a bar?”

“I…uh…well, there’s one in the hotel lounge—you know the one where you stayed when you brought me down for registration.”

“Uh-huh.” The girl is intelligent, independent, and in another city, she reminded herself. Beyond expressing disapproval there wasn’t much Rita could do. “Lacey, I don’t want you going to bars.”

“It was a hotel, Mom. Anyone walking through could hear it.”

“I don’t want you going to hotels either!”

“Mom, I’m not running buck wild in the city.” The sincerity of her laugh went a long way toward convincing Rita of her daughter’s honesty. “You raised me right. I will make good choices.”

That gave her some comfort.

“Though how I learned to make good choices with parents like mine…Karaoke, Mom? It’s just too hokey.”

“Then it should be perfect for Hellon. And for me.”

“Please! Hellon maybe—it must have its share of frustrated wanna be singers like every other Tennessee town. But you? Mom, you would never get up in front of a crowd and sing.”

“Would too.”

Her daughter made a sound that in polite company would have been followed by a red face and a heartfelt apology.

“Sweetie, I didn’t call you to get into another argument about your wanting me to break out of my rut.”

“At this point I’d be happy if you’d just poke your nose up over the edge of that rut and see that there is a whole wide wonderful world out there.”

Last night she had dared to peek out of that nice cozy, comfy rut of hers, and the sun and the stars and the moon and her life had not gone careening out of control. Maybe her child had a point. Maybe she could break free of all the expectations and…and what? What could Rita Stark do? How could she survive without her roots? “Too big a world, Lacey, for a small-town nobody like me.”

“A world that’s yours for the taking, Mom. You could do or be anything, you know that, don’t you?”

No. She did not know that. “Right now I’m going to
do
the corn bread, or I will
be
late. Bye-bye, honey.”

“You know if I thought you would really get up in front of a crowd and sing, even if it was just some silly karaoke, that would be something. A start.”

“You just wait and see then.” She felt no confidence at all, even in such a purposefully vague promise. She bent to open the oven door, then reached for the first skillet. “Okay, now, I have to hang up. It takes both hands for me to climb back down into my rut.”

“Not funny, Mom.”

“Talk to you later. I love you high as my heart,” Rita whispered, her hand to her chest.

“I love you high as my nose,” Lacey Marie came back without a hesitation.

Rita could picture her little girl as a bright-eyed toddler putting a tiny hand to the tip of her nose to go through the motions of the silly poem they’d made up so long ago.

“I love you higher than heaven.” Rita lifted her open hands.

“And right down to my toes,” Lacey chimed in to say the last words with her mother.

Rita crossed her arms in the sweet memory of hugging her child. “Be careful, honey.”

“I will. And you could try being a little less careful for a change.”

Less careful? She shut her eyes to savor the sweet, terrifying thought, then murmured to her daughter, “Bye, now.”

“Bye.”

They hung up and, with tears in her eyes, Rita
set the small cell phone aside. She did not have time for fear or nostalgia. There were hungry people working their butts off on her behalf. She still had to bake the corn bread, tend to the honey-glazed ham, and hope the dessert had set before she had to haul it over to the Palace.

“Less careful?” She slid the pans in the oven and banged the door shut with her knee.

This morning she had indulged in the exhilaration of breaking free of even her own narrow expectations. The feeling had not lasted long, but, like her brief and fiery time with Will, it would leave its mark on her. Maybe, just maybe, they both would finally give her the courage to face down her fears and step out into a new, better way of life.

Maybe…

Rita placed plastic containers and covered glass pans one after another into Will’s waiting grasp as she unloaded the lunch fixings from the back of her car.

“Looks like you brought a whole spread.” He passed each serving dish off to the next set of helping hands among the crew waiting to eat.

“I wouldn’t usually go to this kind of trouble. Oh!” Wind lifted the hem of her floral sundress just enough to show a flash of her tanned thigh.

A proper Southern gentleman might have snatched the serving dish from her straight off so she could take care of that. For once Will relished the fact that he had never earned a reputation as any kind of gentleman, proper or other. He lifted the food from her hands at his leisure.

“Like I said, I wouldn’t normally have done so
much for a group so hungry they’d wolf down ham salad sandwiches and make over them more than lunch at the Peabody.” Rita did not blink or scold him for not rushing to her aid. She did not even stop long enough to do more than catch her flaring dress in one hand, hold it down, and get out more food. “But I had a burst of energy today.”

“I noticed.” He paused to inhale the aroma of hot, fresh corn bread, while moving in close to murmur for her ears only, “You must have broken the sound barrier getting out of here this morning.”

“Shhh.” She glanced around, pulled a second batch of corn bread from the car, and shoved it toward him, her voice booming as she said, “Why, yes, Will. Y’all did get a lot of work done this morning.”

“We have a great work crew,” he matched her volume, then used taking the plate of food as an excuse to lean in close. “It’s just that you left without saying anything.”

“What was there to say? It’s been fun? Have a good life?”

Thank you.
He didn’t realize until he
didn’t
hear it that those were the words he’d expected from her. Expected? He’d wanted her gratitude like a scrawny dog hankers for a table scrap. Not like him. Not like him at all. He had helped her for helping’s sake alone, not to win her admiration. He wondered if he should take her lack of response as a sign that he hadn’t accomplished either?

“So what do we do now?” she asked loudly, her eyes on the crowd.

“Now we get out of the way,” he said, not for the people around them and not for her ears alone. Though his words carried a double meaning, he decided not to try to impose that on her. This was the getting-on-with-it phase of whatever they had shared. The time where they slowly went their separate ways. Where Rita found her footing, and he did not rush in to try to prop her up. If he truly had made a difference to her, she would do that just fine.

“Get out of whose way?” she asked.

“The flooring people.” He pushed his hands out like he was rolling dough because he didn’t know how else to demonstrate it. “We can’t do a thing until they lay the new floor.”

“How long will that take?”

“Be at least another thirty-six hours before we can even get back into the place, much less go back to work.” He took the last tray of corn bread and delivered it into the first pair of hands he found behind him.

“But I can still stay in my apartment?” Rita stepped away from her open car door.

“Oh, Rita, why would you want to? Here.” Jillie held the cloth-covered corn bread Will had just given her out at arm’s length like it was a pot of snakes. “One of you take this. I just came by to get my cell phone back.”

“Your arms and legs ain’t broken, girl. Walk a few steps and put it on the table yourself.” Will
crossed his arms and fixed his heated gaze on his sister. “Everyone here has been busting their asses pitching in, and the least you could do—”

“I’ll take it.” It seemed like Rita, but it didn’t sound like Rita. He pivoted to see a scrappy fellow with pitch-black greased-back hair swoop in. “Glad to help you, Ms. West. Count on me, Billy.”

“Um, you know I made so much, why don’t I put this batch back in the car so the flies won’t get it?” Rita took the tray from Jillie and slid it into the backseat with the grace of a prima ballerina.

“Okay, then.” The small man wiped his nose with the back of his hand, then made his good-byes, calling out, “See you Ms. Stark, Ms. West. Holler if you need anything, Billy. Proud to be of service.”

“Thanks.” Will winced. “That wasn’t the infamous Professor Paul, was it?”

Jillie sneered.

“He runs Wally Love’s gas station on weekends and holidays, and he eats lunch in the Palace every day he’s not working.” Rita waved and grinned and kept waving as the stringy little fellow backed away, bobbing his good-bye with his whole upper body. “I don’t even know his name. He sure seemed to know you, though.”

Will wrung a sigh through his gritted teeth and looked around at the crowd of helpers. He hardly knew a person there, but more than one of them, when they caught him scanning the gathering, gave out a hearty wave. “Everyone here seems to know me.”

“Of course they do.” Jillie slapped him in the chest with the back of her hand. “When people found out their hero was spearheading this project, they turned out in droves.”

“I am nobody’s hero. I have never done anything heroic in my entire life.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.” Rita said it so quietly he had to whip around to see if he’d only imagined it. But by then she stood frowning at Jillie. “Now I know I had your phone at the church because I talked to Lacey Marie so…”

“Think where you put it. I need to be by a phone or have a phone with me at all times.”

“Why?” He snarled at Jillie because she was rude and bossy and useless for not helping her best friend. And she was keeping him from talking privately to Rita, even if they had nothing more to say. “You on some kind of donor list? Waiting for a personality transplant?”

“Grow up,” she growled. “I left a message last night for Paul to please call me. The fact that he hasn’t yet has me worried sick.”

“Oh.” Didn’t he feel a perfect jerk? He patted Jillie on the back. “Well, don’t get worked up. He’ll call.”

“You think?”

Her face beamed with such hope. How could he lie to his baby sister looking up at him like that? “I have no idea.”

“I’m sure he’ll call.” Rita gave her a hug. “Just like I’m sure your phone is still at the church with the rest of my things.”

“Really?”

“Come back with me to the church after lunch and I’ll show you. The phone will be there and Paul will call.”

“I hadn’t planned on staying for lunch.” Jillie had the front of Will’s T-shirt wadded in her fist before he could open his mouth. “And spare me any jokes about my never staying for lunch anywhere.”

“Believe me, if I had made a joke about your eating habits, it woulda been a damn sight funnier than that.”

She added a harmless punch in the belly as she released his shirt.

“Y’all go ahead and dig in that lunch, now. Don’t wait on us.” Rita braced one hand on her car’s fender and used the other hand to shade her eyes from the summer sun. She swept her fingers back through her shiny hair when she angled her shoulders toward Jillie again. “I could bring the phone by your mother’s later.”

“No thank you. I am avoiding my mother today.”

Will raised an eyebrow. “Only today?”

“They actually shared a tender moment last night.” Rita straightened the collar of Jillie’s brilliant blue top. “The experience must have drained the poor little thing.”

“Which one? The West family is vastly overstocked in the poor little thing department.”

“That’s really more information than a girl wants to have about her brother, Will.” Jillie put
her hands to her cheeks. “Still, your shortcomings have not seemed to have affected your love life much.”

“Very funny,” he grumbled.

“If you’re avoiding your mother, sugar, you can always stay with me in my apartment tonight. I’d love the company.”

“With you?” Jillie swung her gaze from Rita to Will, who dodged it with a sudden interest in a piece of broken parking lot. “Maybe I spoke too soon about that love-life thing.”

Will grunted his opinion of his sister’s jest.

The clatter of forks on plastic plates and the waves of good-humored conversation rolled their way. The aroma of delicious food mingled with the rich smell of summer greenery. Will took it all in, and despite how much he hated the way this town behaved toward him, he felt a solid, awesome sense of contentment well up within him.

“Oh, please, Jillie. Come over and stay with me.”

Of course the surroundings might have had very little to do with those new, compelling emotions.

Rita wrinkled her nose and gave no mind to the way the wind kicked up the skirt of her dress. “It’ll be fun.”

“What demented dictionary are you using to define the word ‘fun,’ honey?” Jillie tipped her head back to survey the building, her focus on the row of windows above the electric Pig Rib Palace sign. “You’ve been granted a reprieve from all
this. Thirty-six whole hours where you are excused from being anywhere near here. I say enjoy it. Take advantage of it.”

“Much as it pains me not to make a crack about Jillie encouraging others to take advantage of every excuse to indulge themselves, this time I have to agree with her.” For Rita to take some time away fit his plans perfectly. Absence might make the heart grow fonder, but distance made resolve grow stronger.

“Perhaps I should reconsider my suggestion, then. If Will supports this, it must have a big old flaw in it.”

“The flaw is I have no place to go. I don’t want to impose myself on your mother another night.”

“Another night?” Jillie flicked her wrist like she could dispose of that notion with a halfhearted gesture. “Rita, you didn’t even impose on her more than a couple hours last night.”

Rita lifted her shoulders. Her dress rustled over her body. She did not look at Will. “All the more reason I’d rather not hang around her house for a whole day and a half.”

“Smart.” Will nodded.

“I’d ask Cozie if I could stay out there, but she’s at your mother’s more than she’s at home these days.”

“I can’t tell you how many times I have come down to breakfast the last few weeks to find Cozie already there. She and Mama, coffee in their hands, their heads together over some scheme or another.”

Rita laughed. “Oh, sure your mother and Cozette—covert masterminds at work.”

“I don’t know what they go on about. But it was Cozie being around so much that got me and her talking about
you
, and that’s when we decided…”

“Cozette’s is out.” Rita’s look could have blistered paint. “Besides, she’s gotten awfully strange lately—”

“Lately?”

“About her property,” Rita finished.

“Well, you don’t want to go out to her old property anyway. If the point is to get away, then you should actually get
away
, don’t you think?”

“Where would I go?”

“Where could you go? Where? Where?” Jillie wet her lips and toyed with a strand of her hair. She might just as well have had tiny gears whirring and churning in a side view right into her head—her plotting was that obvious. That obvious to anyone but Rita. “How about over to see Lacey Marie?”

“In Memphis?”

“Memphis, huh?” He stroked his chin in a move even more conspicuous than his sister’s. “Isn’t that where Professor Paul lives?”

“How could I just up and go see Lacey?” Rita fingered the bow on her sundress strap. “She’s in a dormitory. I couldn’t stay with her.”

Jillie shot him a near deadly shut-your-big-mouth glare.

“Well, we wouldn’t have to
stay
with Lacey Marie.”

“She has classes and—Well, when you were young the last thing you wanted was your mother showing up on a fine summer afternoon with her overnight bag under one arm and a lifetime of baggage on her mind.”

“What does age have to do with
that
?” Jillie shuddered. “Okay, so we won’t stay with Lacey.”

“We?” Rita’s eyes narrowed.

“We’ll stay at Will’s house!”

“My house?”

Heads turned. The buzzing parking lot went silent.

All Will could think to do was smile and wave. When the conversation level picked up again, he nabbed Jillie by the arm. “
My
house? What gives you the right to volunteer my house?”

“You want Rita to have the best, don’t you?”

The best? Damn right he wanted her to have the best, but not
his
best. How could he ever ease himself back from this…this…nonrelationship of theirs if when he returned to his home he would know that Rita had been there? That she had touched his things, read his books, sat at his table, and slept in his bed?

His body grew hard at the simple thought of her head on his pillow, her naked body between his sheets. He wiped a few beads of sweat off the back of his neck and cleared his throat. She had already forever altered the way he’d look at Hellon, his family, and even cake. How could he let
her do the same in his own home? “Of course, I want Rita to have the best. And that’s why…”

“No.” Rita laid two fingers over his mouth to keep him from finishing. “It’s a generous offer. Too generous, really. And besides, I think I know where I want to stay.”

Jillie grabbed Rita’s hand. “Then you’ll go?”

“Well, I’d hate to look like a rat abandoning ship.” Her chin low, she raised just her gaze to Will’s, saying so much more than her words ever could.

“Go. It’s not a problem.” Not now that she decided to stay anywhere but his house. “I’ll stay here and supervise and you and…you and Jillie can go to Memphis and whoop it up.”

“Whoop it up?” Jillie fanned her neck with her hand. “I have never whooped anything in my life, Billy, that is your department.”

“Is there more corn bread Rita? Folks are asking.” Pernel poked his head over Rita’s shoulder.

“Never whooped in your life? Don’t you go all badass Princess Barbie on me, little sister.” Will tapped the most prominent feature on his face. “I know where you bought that nose you’re sticking up in the air.”

“Leave my nose out of this, kindly.”

“Oooh. What have I missed here?” Pernel whispered none-too-quietly in the general direction of Rita’s ear.

Rita ignored her ex. “Don’t let this get ugly, you two. Will, stop picking on your sister.”