Epilogue

The day he left the hospital, Peanut wanted to go to his home, where his things were and where everything was familiar, and Ruby didn’t argue. Instead, the women in his life made a schedule between them. Betty and Ruby kept him in food. Ruby stayed with him at night until after the first week had passed, and Laurel came twice a week and kept his house and clothes clean until he was well enough to do it for himself.

At the beginning of the second week, when Ruby arrived after work, he met her at the door, sat her on the sofa, got down on one knee, and pulled a ring from his pocket.

“I got this ring out of the safety deposit box over eight months ago, and it’s past time I put it where it was meant to be. Ruby Dye, you know I love you more than life, and I cannot imagine it without you. Will you marry me?”

Ruby’s dark eyes welled from the love in his voice.

“Yes, yes, yes, I will marry you.”

He slid the single diamond on her ring finger, kissed her hand, and then scooted up beside her on the sofa and kissed her senseless.

When she finally focused on the ring, she was shaken by the size.

“Peanut! What on earth did you do?”

“I mortgaged the house, but I’ll get it paid off in—”

Ruby gasped.

He grinned.

Her eyes narrowed. “Are you kidding me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my lord, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” she said.

“It was my mother’s engagement ring, and now it’s yours,” he said. “It’s been in the Butterman family for a little over two hundred years now.”

Ruby was in shock that an emerald-cut, one-carat diamond was on her finger.

“Now I’m afraid to wear it!”

He laid his hand over the ring. “No, ma’am, you are not afraid to wear this ring. You are more than worthy to wear it. It came over from England on an ancestor’s finger. It went through the Civil War on another, and if the story is true, the woman wearing it killed the Union soldier who tried to take it from her. Someone pawned it once to save a home and then turned around and stole it back and got away with it. Strong, brave women wore this, and I can’t think of a better woman than you to follow in their footsteps.”

Ruby threw her arms around his neck.

“Oh, Peanut, that makes me cry. Thank you for loving me.”

“I couldn’t help myself,” he said. “You rock my world.”

* * *

A couple of weeks later, Peanut had gone back to work part-time. Since it was a Monday, Ruby was home, and he’d gone to her house for lunch to discuss a date for the wedding. After they chose April 8 as the day, the venue was next to discuss, and that’s when Ruby gave Peanut an answer he didn’t expect.

“I want to invite the whole town and hold it in the park at the gazebo.”

Peanut grinned. “The whole town?”

She nodded.

“At the gazebo?”

“Yes,” she said. “I can’t single out some and leave out others. Not when this whole town and the people in it have become the family I lost.”

“I hear you, and I am not against that, but what if it rains?” Peanut asked.

“It’s not going to rain on our wedding,” she said.

He laughed, as he swept her off her feet and sat her up on the kitchen counter so they were almost eye to eye.

“And how do you know that? What have you done? Made a deal with Mother Nature to do her hair for free?”

Ruby laughed. “No.”

“Then okay. So what if it rains? We won’t melt,” he said.

Ruby just frowned. “It’s not going to rain.”

Seeing he was not going to make a dent in her certainty, Peanut moved on.

“So we’re having it at the park. Exactly how much of this all-town blowout are we paying for?”

“Five hundred cupcakes. They bring their own lawn chairs and birdseed.”

“And they throw birdseed instead of rice?”

“Yes.”

“You do realize how many people might be throwing birdseed at us at the same time?”

Ruby frowned. “Why am I just now seeing this worrywart side of your character? What else are you hiding from me?”

“Your wedding ring.”

“I want to see!” she cried.

“You won’t let me see your wedding gown, and I’m not letting you see the ring.”

“What if it doesn’t fit?” she said.

“Now who’s a worrywart?” Peanut asked.

Ruby laughed out loud.

“Lovey will make our cupcakes… Well, probably Mercy. The preacher will marry us. And we’ll set up a few chairs for the elderly who would have problems with transporting their own.”

“And what do I need to do?” he asked.

“Pay half the bills and show up.”

He grinned. “I can do that,” he said.

Ruby shivered. The day couldn’t come any too soon.

“Come to bed with me,” Peanut said, and he kissed the spot below her ear.

“I have a pie in the oven,” Ruby said.

“Then we’ll hurry,” he said.

She laughed. “Oh dear lord, how I love you. We have twenty minutes.”

He set her on her feet, grabbed her by the hand, and pulled her toward her bedroom. What had started out as a lunch break was turning into so much more.

They undressed in haste and fell onto the bed in each other’s arms. Laughter lit the fire of joy…and then the kisses deepened, lighting a fire of another kind.

Ruby closed her eyes, focusing on the sensation of building heat as he marauded his way down her body—stealing kisses, cupping her breasts, mapping the shape of her hips, and then moving into dangerous territory—and wanting him in a way for which she had no words.

By the time he moved between her legs and took her, she’d lost focus on everything but how he was making her feel. She wanted it to last forever, but the more it built, the harder it was to bear the ache.

Then his breathing shifted. He was moving faster, going deeper, and she thought she couldn’t bear for him to stop, until the feeling grew so intense that she needed that rush of blood to stop it.

It happened in a glorious, mind-numbing, spilling-over-into-another-world climax that left both of them breathless. For one long moment, neither spoke, and then from off in another part of the house, they both heard a ding. The timer on the pie had gone off.

Peanut raised up on one elbow to gaze down at her face—her sweet, beautiful face.

“We get better every time,” Ruby said.

He leaned down and kissed her.

“I work best under pressure.”

She burst into laughter. “You crazy man. Let me up, or my pie will burn.”

He grinned, then rolled over, admiring her bare backside as she grabbed a robe and raced out of the bedroom.

He stretched, then got up. She was still gone when he began to get dressed.

When she came hurrying back, she was clutching the robe together at her waist and laughing so hard she could barely talk.

“What’s so funny?” Peanut asked.

“The mailman caught a glimpse of me running through the house with my robe flapping as he came up the steps. He looked back at your car in the driveway and turned red as a beet.”

Peanut grinned.

“Well, then it’s a good thing I’m making an honest woman of you.”

Ruby grinned and then glanced at the clock.

“I love you, mister, but you’re going to be late for your next appointment if you don’t leave now.”

“Yes, ma’am, uh…and I have a question. Are you giving that pie away?”

“No, why?” Ruby asked.

“Well, since I like pie, I thought I might swing by with barbecue this evening and trade you some ribs for some pie à la mode.”

Ruby laughed. “I’ll be home about five thirty, and barbecue sounds wonderful.”

“I’ll be here at six with the food. No cooking for either of us tonight.”

“And come April 8th, we’ll be cooking meals together,” Ruby said.

“April 8th can’t come soon enough,” Peanut said, and then kissed her goodbye. “I’ll let myself out.”

* * *

Ruby and Peanut’s wedding invitation, which came out two weeks before the event, was a full-page ad in the local paper addressed to every resident of Blessings, and anyone else who knew them, stating that everyone was invited to the high-noon wedding, which would be held in the gazebo at the city park on Saturday, April 8.

Bring your own lawn chairs and picnic lunches. Dinner on the ground after the service. Wedding cake provided until it runs out, it read.

The next two weeks were the longest of Ruby’s life.

* * *

Then Saturday, April 8, finally arrived.

Peanut was dreaming about putting up umbrellas all over the park for people to get out of the rain when he woke. After that crazy dream, he jumped up and looked out to check the weather.

When he saw the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky, he laughed out loud. Ruby had gotten her sunshiny day, and he was going to get a wife. He was definitely coming out the winner here. Unwilling to waste a moment, he made his bed, then jumped in the shower.

Afterward, he took extra time with his grooming, trying to find a way to comb his hair so that most, if not all, of the scars on his head were concealed, and then gave it up as a lost cause. He and Ruby were alive and well, and that was all that mattered.

He shaved before putting on a pair of gym shorts and went to make breakfast. It would be the last morning that he would make breakfast alone.

After that, time seemed to fly by. Before he knew it, it was time to get dressed and head for the park.

Peanut’s tuxedo and pleated cummerbund were black; his shirt was pristine white—but without the damn ruffles, as he’d told the tailor. He had shiny new dress shoes, and Ruby’s ring was in his pocket.

He grabbed his wallet, tossed his suitcase in the trunk of his car, and then locked his house. It would be a few days before they’d be back. He was getting antsy by the time he jumped in the car and drove away.

* * *

Ruby’s morning was moving along at a similar pace. Her clothes were packed for the honeymoon, and Lovey was taking her to the park so that she could leave her car at home while they were gone.

But when she went into the kitchen to make breakfast, it was a poignant moment, knowing she would never wake up in this house again.

She still hadn’t decided what she was going to do with it, but that didn’t matter. Today, the only thing that mattered was marrying Peanut.

When it came time to get dressed, she began to fuss. She’d already done her hair and makeup, and now all she had to do was get the wedding dress on without messing it all up. It had been hanging on the outside of her closet door all morning, and she couldn’t wait for Peanut to see her in it.

Even though she’d been married before, Ruby had still chosen white, and knowing she was going to be in broad daylight when she wore it, she’d purposefully chosen a dress with lots of sparkle. Since the ceremony was being held outside, she hadn’t bothered to look at full-length gowns because she didn’t want to drag one through the grass. What she had chosen was in rich white brocade, above-the-knees short, and sleeveless, with a plunging neckline and a fitted bodice. And…there was enough bling on it to light a darkened room.

Ruby managed to get the dress on without messing up her hair but then couldn’t zip it. She had to wait for Lovey, who arrived a couple of minutes later in a flurry of anxiety, zipped Ruby into the dress, and then helped her put on the veil.

“Oh, sister, you are so beautiful,” Lovey said, and then wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “You and Peanut paid dearly to get to this day, and I couldn’t be happier for the both of you. Now where’s your luggage?”

Ruby pointed to the bags. “Those two.”

“I’ll carry them to the car. You gather up what you need from in here. I’ll be waiting for you outside.”

“Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue. And a penny in my shoe,” Ruby said, then checked to make sure she had them all.

Her something old was the one-carat diamond in the engagement ring Peanut had given her. Something new was her dress. Something borrowed were Lovey’s diamond earrings. They’d been given to her by her last husband. And the something blue was the blue garter at mid-thigh on her leg. The penny in her shoe was a 1901 penny she’d received in payment the first year she was in business and had kept for good luck.

She looked around at all of her beloved things, some of which she would take with her to her new home, and some of which would stay here.

“I’ll find someone wonderful for you,” Ruby said, and then hurried out, locking the door behind her.

The drive to the park felt surreal. She was quiet all the way, thinking of the journey it had taken for her and Peanut to get to this day.

And then they reached the park. Myra Franklin was waiting on the other side of the street with Ruby’s bouquet.

“This is beautiful,” Ruby said, eyeing all of the sparkle Myra had incorporated among the white gardenias and the deep green of the waxy magnolia leaves.

Then she looked across the street at the moving mass of people coming in with chairs and blankets and big picnic baskets on their arms, and laughed out loud.

“Just like the Fourth of July,” Ruby said.

“But without the fireworks,” Myra added.

“Oh, there will be fireworks somewhere before this day is over,” Lovey said, and then winked.

Ruby grinned. “Most likely you will be right. So let’s get this started.”

As Ruby and Lovey started across the street, Lovey made a quick call to the band director from the high school who was waiting for her signal.

“Hey, Justin, we’re here. Start the music.”

Within seconds, the sounds of the “Wedding March” rang out through the loudspeakers set up around the gazebo.

The last thing Lovey did was pull the veil over Ruby’s face. Then she disappeared into the crowd, leaving Ruby alone at the sidewalk.

The moment the music began, people turned toward the street and saw her waiting. There was a group sigh from the crowd as they began moving aside, leaving her a near-perfect aisle to the gazebo.

Ruby’s heart was pounding as she started walking across the spring-green grass.

Their wedding flowers were the blooming lilac bushes and the beds of yellow jonquils and bright-red tulips scattered about the park. The birds in the trees were chirping and flying from tree to tree in brief flashes of bluebird blue and robin red.

Sunlight caught and sparkled on every little jewel and sequin as Ruby moved into view, while audible gasps and murmurs of delight followed her every step. She glimmered like starlight, shining only for the man who loved her.

* * *

Peanut was standing at the bottom step of the gazebo. Their pastor was standing at the top, just beneath the conical roof.

He saw the sparkle, and then he saw her—and for a few moments forgot to breathe. Then the closer she came, the more rapid his heart beat. The music of the “Wedding March” surrounded him and flowed through him as he locked onto her face.

This beautiful woman loves me.

When she was only yards away, he went to meet her. She looked up at him and smiled as he tucked her hand beneath his arm.

“Magnificent,” he whispered, and they went the rest of the way together.

* * *

There were hundreds of people standing as witnesses all over the park, and yet there wasn’t a sound to be heard from any of them, not even from the children sitting on their fathers’ shoulders. They were convinced that a real fairy had walked into their midst, because what else but a fairy would sparkle like this?

For Ruby, it felt like a dream, but she knew it was real when the music suddenly stopped and the pastor stepped out of the shadow above them and spoke into the microphone.

“Dearly beloved—”

At that moment Ruby shifted to autopilot, answering when questioned. Speaking when spoken to. Never taking her gaze from Peanut’s face.

When Peanut pulled a ring from his pocket and slipped it on her finger, she gasped. The white-gold band was encircled with rubies, sparkling as bright as the diamond already on her finger.

Then she heard Peanut’s voice ringing out as loud and strong as it did in a courtroom when he was pleading a case.

“I, Peanut, take thee, Ruby…”

Tears threatened, but she blinked them away as she watched his face, lost in the love she saw there.

Then she heard the pastor say, “Ruby, repeat after me,” so she did.

“I, Ruby, take thee, Peanut, to be my lawfully wedded husband.”

Peanut’s grip tightened slightly as she went through the vows as well, and then she heard the pastor saying the words they’d waited so long to hear.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. Peanut, you may kiss your bride.”

Peanut reached toward Ruby, lifted the veil, put a hand on either side of her face, and lowered his head.

And then he kissed her.

When he raised his head, her eyes were still closed, so he leaned down and did it again.

The whole town erupted into laughter as Peanut and Ruby turned and waved.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the pastor said, “it is my pleasure to introduce the newest married couple in town, Mr. and Mrs. Butterman, otherwise known as Peanut and Ruby. And since they’re not going anywhere, and we’re all about to eat our dinner, now’s the time to get that birdseed in the air.”

People were on their feet, throwing birdseed toward them, and at each other, and up in the air.

Ruby looked at Peanut and burst into laughter.

All he saw were her eyes, and that smile, and the sparkle. She was shining. He had married an angel. He’d always known she was special, and now it was evident for the world to see.

Then Lovey came running.

“Dinner is ready. Your table is up here in the gazebo. If you ever wondered what it would be like to eat a meal in front of hundreds of people, you’re about to find out.”

“I don’t care where we eat, as long as I’m sharing the meal with my wife,” Peanut said.

They walked up the steps and then turned and waved, recognizing friends and customers, townspeople and people from the hills—all who called Blessings their home. She saw Melissa Dean, and then the Conroy family, more people from church, and from the hills beyond the town. All of them were standing. Some were crying, and some were clapping, and some were still throwing birdseed into the air.

When Ruby and Peanut sat down at their table, it was the signal needed for the wedding guests to begin laying out their food. Blankets were spread, and families sat. Food came out and the party began as the air was filled with the sounds of talk and laughter.

Lovey served them chicken and dumplings, the Saturday special from Granny’s, and then put on a side table an ornate, three-tiered wedding cake that sparkled just like Ruby.

When Ruby saw it, she beamed. “Oh, Lovey, that is beautiful.”

“We have Mercy to thank for this and the five hundred vanilla cupcakes with white icing and silver sparkles.”

“Where are they?” Ruby asked.

Lovey pointed to four long tables beneath the trees. “They’re putting them out right now.”

“Hey, Wife,” Peanut said.

Ruby turned, saw the bite he was holding out for her to eat, and opened her mouth, and the meal began.

When they finished, they were guided toward the four long tables set up beneath a swath of shade trees, and to the wedding cake and five hundred cupcakes surrounding it.

Peanut and Ruby cut the cake, fed each other the traditional bite, and then stood talking and laughing with everyone who came to get cake.

Two hours later, Ruby grabbed her bouquet and headed for the steps of the gazebo and reached for the microphone.

“Hey, all you single ladies interested in catching yourself a man…gather around. I caught the bouquet at the last wedding I attended, and look what happened. Now’s your chance.”

Much giggling ensued as women gathered. Some, like Alice Conroy, weren’t ready to join that crowd, but Melissa’s ache was old and familiar—that she was alive and Andy was not.

Ruby climbed up on the steps and gave the bouquet a big toss. Everyone watched as it launched, hit its arc, then started falling, falling, right down into the middle of the crowd, into Mabel Jean Doolittle’s hands.

She gasped, then squealed, and everyone laughed.

Then Peanut stepped up and knelt at Ruby’s feet, ran his hands up one leg until he felt the blue garter, and slid it down with a gleam in his eye while Ruby laughed and laughed.

Peanut grabbed the microphone. “Got any single men in this crowd?”

A roar of laughter rose as men, both young and old, came through the crowd and gathered around the gazebo.

Peanut winked at Ruby, then pulled back on the garter like a slingshot and sent it flying into the air, right into the outstretched hands of Elvis Kingston, the fry cook at Granny’s Country Kitchen.

Elvis turned red and grinned, but he pulled the garter up his forearm, wearing it like a poker dealer in a casino, and walked off through the crowd.

* * *

The picnic was still going strong when Peanut and Ruby snuck out through an alley and hopped in the back of Lovey’s car so she could drive them to the back parking lot of the Curl Up and Dye.

Vera and Vesta had volunteered to be responsible for the tux and wedding gown and were waiting inside the shop.

After Ruby and Peanut had changed and Ruby had returned Lovey’s diamond earrings, they slipped out the front door to where Peanut had parked his car for the getaway. Lovey was unloading Ruby’s bags into the car, and they laughed at what they saw.

JUST MARRIED was written on the back window. There was a big banner tied to the front bumper that also said JUST MARRIED, and red, silver, and black streamers were tied from one end of the back bumper to the other. A big, silver balloon had been tied to each of the front door handles. One said BRIDE. One said GROOM.

Ruby was giddy from the joy.

“Oh, Peanut. This is the most wonderful, most perfect day!”

He looked at her then, saw her cheeks as pink as the dress she was wearing, and leaned down and kissed her.

“Now, it is the most wonderful, most perfect day,” he said, and opened the door for her to get in while the balloon bounced above his head in the breeze. “Buckle up. We’re about to begin this ride called life.”

She slid into the seat as Peanut closed her door, then circled the car and jumped in behind the wheel. Lovey and the twins were waving as Peanut and Ruby drove away. A couple of blocks down, he turned back toward the park.

“Honk so I can wave,” Ruby said as she rolled down the window.

Peanut began to honk repeatedly with his window down.

The wedding guests turned just in time to see Peanut and Ruby waving out the windows as they drove by. A huge roar rose from the crowd as everyone began shouting and waving goodbye. Then as they watched, the Bride and the Groom balloons came loose from where they’d been tied and began floating up, up, up until they finally disappeared from view.

* * *

Peanut and Ruby were on their way out of town when they met a big, silver pickup truck pulling a U-Haul trailer.

The driver saw them as he approached, noticed the JUST MARRIED banner tied to the front bumper and the streamers waving in the wind behind them, and honked and waved as he passed.

Peanut glanced up in the rearview mirror and then shook his head. “Well, I’ll be. I wonder if he’s moving back. I never thought I’d see him again.”

“See who?” Ruby asked.

“Aidan Payne. He was a guy I went to high school with. Oh, wow, I’m just now putting two and two together. While I was recovering, didn’t Preston Williams pass away?”

“If you mean the old man who lived across the street from Mercy’s old landlord, yes, he did.”

“Aidan is Preston Williams’s grandson.”

“So what’s the big deal about him coming back?” Ruby asked.

“The whole family moved away during Aidan’s last year of high school under a very dark cloud of suspicion. Nothing was ever proven, but everyone thought that Aidan’s father burned down his own business for the insurance money. To make matters worse, it burned down the business next to it, and someone died in that fire.”

Ruby shivered.

“Poor Aidan, having to grow up with that cloud of suspicion hanging over the family name.”

Peanut nodded. “Well, I guess we’ll find out if he’s staying when we get back. Right now, all I care about is going on a honeymoon with my honey.”

“Me too,” Ruby said, and leaned back in the seat as they added to the miles taking them away from Blessings.

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what Aidan Payne was like, and if he stayed, would there be trouble for him again?

Ruby sighed. It was always an interesting event when a lost son of Blessings found his way home.

Order Sharon Sala’s next book
in the Blessings, Georgia series

Come Back to Me

On sale September 2018