The Sassy Belles (20 page)

19

I
ran the hot water till it
steamed the bathroom into a fog. It was early in the morning now, the sun was
rising and Sonny had just left. Wanda Jo would take all the calls today. I had
called the office and left her a message that I was going to work from home. I
needed some time to think and try to get my head around the evening’s adventures
and not have to run into Harry at the office. I wiped the bathroom mirror off
just enough to catch my reflection. I stared at myself as flashes of what I had
just done popped in and out of my head. I could still feel his weight on me,
smell his cologne, taste his mouth on mine. Was I the skank now? I knew who
would tell me whether I asked her or not.

“Oh, Miss Blaaaakeeee… Is that my new skanky friend comin’ out
of the shower?” Vivi teased from the kitchen as I was drying off. I smiled at
myself in the mirror.
What’s done is done. No
regrets.
Yes, I had feelings for Sonny. They’d never gone away. They
never would. I had no idea what I would do from here, so I decided not to worry
about it.

“I’m coming,” I said as I wrapped myself in a towel.

“Yes, I bet.” She laughed at herself. Her red frizz preceded
her as she popped her head into the bathroom door.

“Well, lady of the night…how was our detective? Did he hold a
‘discovery of new evidence’ session with you last night?” I smiled at her as I
combed my wet hair. Vivi continued with the teasing.

“And did my attorney in this matter take good notes, or did she
reenact the events?”

“Ha-ha. Very funny.” I laughed.

“Okay, finish up and get out here and tell me everything.”

I put my pink silky robe on and rubbed the towel in my hair. I
started thinking about what Sonny had said. Was it revenge sex? No, this was
makeup sex. Making up for the last twenty years of not making love with him. I
finally just did what I wanted to do, not what was expected of me. Not what I
was supposed to do. And it felt damn good.

Vivi and I sat in Meridee’s kitchen talking lovers and marriage
and the past. We never got dressed. It was a robes and coffee all day kind of
day. Rainy and warm, we never noticed that the day had worn into evening.
Meridee and Kitty hadn’t come back from wherever they’d gone for the day. I left
my phone on silent so I didn’t hear from Sonny or Harry.

Along about 4:45, Vivi looked over the kitchen table at me.
“You know, where is everybody today? Just too damn quiet for me,” she said. I
checked my phone and had two missed calls. One from Harry and one from Wanda Jo.
I called the office and Wanda Jo answered.

“Well, well, are we on vacation?” she asked sarcastically. “I
haven’t even heard from you or Mr. Heart all damn day. Those Myrnas are driving
me batty and now the Jennings have called three times about their son’s car
wreck. He needs to know if he’s gonna be charged for hittin’ Mr. Neighbor’s mule
since the mule had escaped to a city street. I told him that mule had no right
of way…the street is for cars, but hey, I’m no lawyer.”

By this time I was laughing to myself on the other end. “I’ll
take care of it, Wanda Jo. Don’t worry. Why don’t you go on home for the
day?”

“Okay, that works for me,” she said. “It’s poker night with my
sister so I need to straighten up my house. Thanks, I’ll see y’all in the
mornin’.”

I checked the kitchen clock—five o’clock. I could not believe
the day was gone. All I knew was Kitty better be getting all of our info from
Meridee on those strange letters. If my grandmother was involved with Lewis on
some old financial venture, I wanted to know about it and Kitty was the only one
who could frame it just right. Those women were two of a kind—smart as whips and
suspicious of everyone. But Kitty was more of a nag than Meridee and my money
was on her. I’d have my answers tonight.

I had purposely avoided telling Vivi about the bank information
and that they knew Lewis was alive after she reported him missing. We still
didn’t know why he’d disappeared or if anything had happened to him since he’d
been seen at the bank. If the worst happened and they found he wasn’t alive
anymore, it would just be so unfair to get her hopes so high. So I left it alone
until we had something certain to tell her.

I wanted to call Sonny so bad. The flashes of the night before
kept popping in and out of my head. My stomach dropped a hundred times,
remembering the feeling of Sonny kissing me, touching me, filling me. I had been
toying with my cell phone and glancing at the screen all day. I couldn’t stand
it anymore.

“Go ahead.” Vivi broke into my thoughts. “You’ve been looking
at that damn screen like it holds the book of secrets. Just do it.”

“What?” I said, all innocent.

“Don’t play with me, girlie,” she said with a wink. “Call your
lover.”

I smiled at her and hit Sonny’s name on my cell. The deep
baritone answered. “Baby?” he said. “Hey.”

“I would have never pegged you for the love ’em and leave ’em
type,” I teased.

“Blake, I’m sorry, honey. We got a big break today. I’ve been
with Harry all day and haven’t had a moment alone to call you.”

I could not speak. My breath was stuck in my throat.

“Blake?” he said. “Blake, baby, everything’s just fine. And,
no, next question, I did not tell him about the cavity search last night.”

I laughed, breaking my stuck-together throat into a heavy
relief. “What was the big break today?” I asked. “Do you need to see me?”

“Oh, I have seen you, and I like what I saw,” he said.

“Look, big boy, I need to know what happened.”

“Well, technically, Harry is supposed to talk to you. He was
here and is your co-counsel, but due to the extenuating circumstances, I’ll be
glad to fill you in…ahem…been there done that….”

“You just cannot help yourself, can you?” I said with a
smile.

He cleared his throat playfully. I could tell he was happy. He
had a lighter tone in his voice. He also sounded like things were finally going
well on this case.

“There were no matches for anyone we tested against that
hot-pink lipstick, so the good news is that Vivi is definitely off the hook on
that front—not that we imagined it would go any other way. I’m still runnin’ one
more test….” A pause.

“What is it, Sonny? You sound like you’ve got something more to
tell me.”

“Well, thing is, Harry decided that we needed to bring Dallas
in for questioning.”

“What?” I nearly dropped my cell phone. “Let me get this all
straight. I catch my skanky ex-stepsister with her breast in the mouth of my
two-faced husband, and then I have the best sex of my life with my sexy old high
school boyfriend, and then both of them spend the day with the skanky
stepsister? Do I have this right? I’m just trying to get this straight.”

“That’s pretty much it, babe,” he said. “Especially the best
sex of your life with your sexy high school boyfriend part. But, Blake, more
importantly, we got a break today, and it suggests even more than the evidence
from the bank that Lewis is still alive somewhere.”

“Oh, my God. Vivi!” I yelled. “Get in here! Sonny, do you want
us to get dressed and come there?”

“Let’s get this clear—I never want you dressed. But, yes, I
want y’all to come here. We have a lot to discuss.”

Even in a crisis, Sonny could make me smile…and always make me
feel so sexy.

“Is Harry gonna be there?”

“Yes,” he said.

I took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay. Be there in a
few.”

Vivi came running in just as I hung up. “What is it, honey?”
she asked. “Did Sonny and Harry fight it out?”

“Vivi, sit down,” I said. I knew that I had to spill everything
about Lewis now. If I didn’t, and she heard it from Harry and Sonny at the
station, she’d never forgive me for keeping the news from her. Regardless of
what happened to Lewis from here on out, I had to bring her up to date on the
fact that we were pretty sure he was alive. “Honey, there’s something serious I
need to talk to you about.”

“What? Oh, my God, Lewis is dead! They found him!” She began to
hyperventilate. “Oh, Lord. Oh, no…”

“Vivi!” I yelled at her. “Snap out of it! No, sweetie, no! They
think he’s alive.”

“Oh, my God, oh, my God!” Now she was hyperventilating over the
good news, so I just kept on talking.

“Yes, they believe they have evidence to show that he’s
alive.”

I walked over to the drawer of plastic sandwich bags as I
explained. “Sonny said they had a big break in the case today.” I walked back
over to Vivi with a Ziploc. She grabbed it from me and put it over her blue lips
and breathed in, like we had done this a hundred times before. (We had.) The bag
collapsed. I helped her hold it in place as I talked.

“Slow down, honey,” I said. “Now, we gotta go down to the
station. Everyone—Harry, Dallas and Sonny—will be there and you are going with
me.”

She breathed deeply into the bag a few more times until her
heart rate slowed and she could think again. “Will you be okay?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about me. There are bigger things going on right
now than Harry and Dallas. I am your attorney. I have to be there. Now, c’mon.
We need to get dressed.”

We left the kitchen and hurried to get ready. I went into the
bathroom and washed my face and brushed the coffee off my breath. We threw on
our clothes.
Okay,
I thought to myself,
here I go. I can do this.
I took in a deep breath and
turned off the bedroom light. I was fixin’ to be standing with my cheatin’
husband, his lover and my lover, in the same room—all while trying to solve the
case of my missing brother-in-law.
This should be
good.

20

V
ivi and I left for the station
just as dusk was falling into a pink haze over the Warrior River. Vivi had
squirmed and bitten her nails to the quick all the way over.

“I sure hope I don’t have to look at Dallas in the eyes,” she
said with her trademark attitude. “I want to pull her hair out. What the hell
was Harry thinking? She’s been all around town already—I can’t even imagine what
he saw in her.”

“Her easiness?” I joked. “But, Vivi, I slept with Sonny last
night, too,” I said. I was trying to show her I was just as guilty, thinking
this would calm her down so we could hear the break in the case and do the hair
pulling later.

“I know,” she said, “but Sonny is a good man and he’s loved you
forever. Dallas doesn’t care about Harry—I think she’s just out to get whatever
will help her career.”

“That sounds just like Harry, too, doesn’t it? Two of a kind,
maybe?” She was quiet for a moment as we thought about that. Then her thoughts
returned to Lewis.

“Blake, do you think Lewis ran away? I mean, if they think he
is alive, why would he leave me like that? I really thought he loved me. I mean,
I know Lewis is Lewis but he and I…we…had a thing.”

“Oh, honey. He does love you. I know there must be a good
explanation.”

“If he’s out there, I’d be so happy, Blake. This baby may get
to know her father.”

“Yeah, but we still need to find him and bring him home,” I
said.

I looked ahead and the station was just in sight. I knew
everything was about to change. We needed answers before I could even think of
where to sleep tonight. So I looked at Vivi. “You ready?”

Vivi reached over and squeezed my hand. “Blake, I am ready for
anything that lets me know my Lewis is alive. I have to say something before we
see these boys. Please don’t take this the wrong way. I am only sayin’ this
’cause you need to hear it before you look at these two men together.”

Vivi was disarming. I was listening with a warning in the pit
of my stomach.

“Something happened to you last night,” Vivi began.

“It sure did,” I said with a sly grin.

“No, really. I mean…Sonny has an effect on you. He brought you
back to yourself. I saw it in you all day while we were sittin’ at Meridee’s
table. Since you married Harry, little pieces of my Blake are being lost, year
after year. You have become who Harry needs you to be. Not who you really are.
You’ve had a blanket of sadness over you that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
But Sonny brought you back last night. He took the blanket off…so to speak. I
see that happiness comin’ back. That sparkle.”

Tears fell as I pulled into a spot outside the station and
listened to her. Vivi knew me better than anyone, and deep down, I knew she was
right.

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” she said.

“No, it’s okay. I know what you’re saying. I haven’t felt that
good and that real in forever.”

“Listen to me,” she continued. “Your neck is nearly as red as
the rest of us. You always had that little touch of class that the rest of us
didn’t, but underneath all those beauty crowns, education, worldliness and
debate trophies, you love a good honky-tonk and a cold longneck just as much as
we do. When you married Harry, he wanted to change you…squash out that little
bit of red, and he barely let the Southern Belle show. Blake, you gotta be true
to yourself or you’ll die. Nothin’ about you ever needed changin’.”

I was fully engulfed now. She had opened the dam. Everything
she said was true, and it left me more confused than I could deal with. Not only
was I questioning who I really loved…but now I had to ask myself who I really
was.
Vivi handed me a tissue out of the glove
box and I opened my purse and fumbled for my makeup bag.

Vivi had made me think. How could I not compare the two of
them? I had loved Harry. I loved how he dressed and his preppy-boy good looks. I
loved his ambitious nature. But now those ambitions were running me over like a
bulldozer. I felt like I didn’t matter. I felt invisible. I was sad inside. But
Sonny saw me and made me see
myself
again. And he
made me like what I saw. I was me again, after a long absence. The sheer joy in
that was indescribable. Sonny was quite the opposite of Harry in terms of looks.
But deeper than that he was rugged and real and more emotional. He didn’t mind
sharing his feelings with me. He was passionate and masculine and so confident.
Harry acted confident, he loved the mirror all right, but it was just that—the
constant checking on himself—that made him look insecure to me. Harry was ice to
Sonny’s fire. And I knew I got that fire going. I loved that. Maybe most of all.
A Belle loves to feel alluring and beautiful. It’s the Scarlett O’Hara in us.
Most important, I felt like myself with Sonny. The best of me came out. He
encouraged it and wasn’t challenged by it…or jealous of it. I could shine. And
breathe.

“I’m sorry,” Vivi said again. “I had this on my mind all day
and I just needed you to hear it.”

“Now?” I said, and swiped some powder across my red cheeks. “I
hear you. I have felt sad. For a very long time. And Sonny makes me feel like me
again. The two of them are so different. I will need to talk to Harry when the
dust settles. But right now, we’ve got business in front of us and I am your
counsel. Not the other way around.”

“And I need you,” she said, smiling.

We climbed out of the car and entered the station through the
back door and walked down the hall to Sonny’s office. Vivi clutched my hand
before we entered and we looked at each other. We were in this together. Like
everything else.

Sonny was alone in his office. He had his back to us when we
tapped on his door.

“Hey, ladies, have a seat.” I wanted to kiss him and hug him,
but we just sat down in the overstuffed leather chairs. I scooted my chair up
close to his desk.

Vivi spoke right up. “So, tell me, is my Lewis alive? Please
tell me you think so.”

I looked nervously at Sonny. He glanced at me and in that
instant, I knew it was okay.

“Vivi, as you probably know, we have had many calls and leads
and have even followed some of Dallas’s leads from her TV campaign. But one in
particular kept croppin’ up, over and over,” Sonny explained. “Seems many people
think they saw Lewis at a bank in Birmingham not too long after you reported him
dead at the motel and we realized he’d gone missing. I had Bonita check things
out and the videotape and bank records do show it was him.”

“Oh, my God!” Vivi jumped up. “That is just the news I was
hoping for!” Vivi was full of relief and hope.

“We are checking on a couple more things at the moment, but we
expect the answers will be in shortly.” Sonny gave her a confident smile. He
knew more than he was saying.

“Do you have any idea where he is? I mean, is he still okay?
You said you know he was at the bank but that was ages ago. Where is he now? Is
he still alive?” Vivi sat back down and began to look worried.

“We will know more in just a little bit.”

“We will sit right here till we have our answers,” I told her,
grabbing her hand. I blew out a big breath and looked at Sonny.

“Is Harry here?” I asked.

Sonny looked at me with that look, eyebrow up. “Missing
him?”

“Hell, no, she isn’t,” Vivi answered for me.

“No, just asking.” Preparing, more like it.

“He went for coffee and Krispy Kremes.”

“Oh, God, is it gonna be a long night?” I asked. Anytime
somebody breaks out the Krispy Kremes at night, you just knew it was gonna be a
long one.

“It could be,” Sonny said.

My cell rang. Kitty. “Not now, Mother,” I said out loud as I
answered the phone anyway.

But that didn’t stop her, and she started talking a mile a
minute. She always did, but this was even faster than usual. Her words whooshing
by, I caught the word “letters” and then “Meridee.”

“Slow down,” I said.

“Wait,” Sonny interrupted. “Is that Kitty? Is she with your
grandmother?”

“Are you still with Meridee?” I asked her, then nodded to
Sonny.

“Tell her we need to see them. Tell them to come on down to the
station right away.”

I relayed the messages and hung up, becoming more confused by
the second.

“What the hell is going on?” Vivi couldn’t take it anymore. “Is
Lewis alive—I mean right this minute? I just need to know the answer to that one
question. Can anyone tell me that?” She was losing it, heading for an all-night
conniption, and we just didn’t want that.

“Sonny,” I chimed in over Vivi’s escalating shrill, “can we
just answer that?”

“Definitely, Lewis is alive,” he said. “Well, not definitely,
but we are pretty sure we know who has the answers.”

“Lemme guess,” Vivi said, “Dallas?”

“No, not her,” he said with a laugh. “Let’s just wait till
everyone gets here.”

“Sonny, can I see you in the hall a sec?” I said, getting up
from my seat. We walked down the hall and out of earshot of Vivi, Sonny leading
the way. He turned to me and didn’t speak. His presence was commanding, yet such
a comfort. He looked down at me, smiling.

I had on thin, charcoal-gray yoga pants that tied with a
drawstring at the waist, a white, low-scooped tank top and a long, gray
cashmere, hooded sweater. My hair was wavy from air drying on the way over, and
I had only mascara and lip gloss for makeup. We had left in such a hurry, no
time for the usual pageant-hair and full face.

“God, you look good enough to eat,” he said. Images of Little
Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf entered my head for just a quick second,
enticing me with excitement, then I relaxed and grinned at him.

“Sonny, that is not what I brought you out here for….”

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll keep that thought for later. We think
Lewis is alive. All the evidence is pointing that way. Just this afternoon, we
got a positive ID on the cigarette.”

“Dallas, huh?” I said. “She seems to be making the rounds on
the Heart men.”

Sonny’s face turned serious.

“Actually, Blake…” His voice deepened and his eyes widened.

“What’s going on, Sonny?”

“Blake, when I was with you last night—well,
after
I was with you… When I went to the bathroom just
before I left, I took some of Meridee’s hair from her hairbrush to just
see…well, you know, if there was any connection. I mean we both knew she did
have this secret communication with Lewis. And we’d already tested the rest of
us, so it just seemed like the logical next step.”

“And?” I prompted. My heart felt like it was choking me.

“Blake, the hot-pink lipstick came back positive for
Meridee.”

“What? Are you kiddin’ me?”

“This is no joke, Blake. Your grandmother was in Lewis’s condo
twelve hours before he disappeared.”

“Oh, my God!” It finally hit me. “All this time… Well, what in
hell was she thinking? Does this mean she’s known where Lewis was all
along?”

“Well, that’s why we wanted to see both your mother and
grandmother,” Sonny explained. “You told me last night that Kitty would get the
answers from her. I’m just hoping she did.”