Fiona slid into the last spot on the pew that Sunday morning, right next to Jud, who kept his eyes straight ahead and didn’t even acknowledge her presence. Lizzy leaned forward and shot her a dirty look. Now wasn’t this just the cherries on the top of a triple fudge brownie sundae?
“Where have you been?” Lizzy mouthed.
“Later,” Fiona said.
“Good morning,” the preacher’s loud booming voice cut through the low buzz of whispers.
Fiona wondered how much of the conversation was about her that morning. If Sharlene had already found out that she’d been out all night, then the whole town knew. Suddenly, she could feel the whole congregation plus the preacher staring at her. It didn’t matter. She didn’t give a damn what they thought, what they imagined, or what was truth or rumor. She’d found peace and that was worth every hour she’d spent driving half the night.
She nudged Jud. “We need to talk.”
He nodded but didn’t glance her way.
She’d recharged her phone while she’d taken the quickest shower in her life, then changed from her jeans and sweatshirt into a nice straight denim skirt and a pretty red and green plaid sweater. She had kicked off her work boots and put on a pair of red leather ones that she hadn’t worn in years, but they felt comfortable.
“I’m going to read from Luke about the birth of Jesus,” the preacher said.
She tried to listen, but the vibration in her purse that sat between her and Jud let her know someone had sent her a text message. She looked over at Jud, but his hands were crossed over his chest. Leaning forward, she could see that Lizzy and Allie both had phones tucked inside their Bibles and their thumbs were flying.
It’s a good thing Dora June couldn’t see them or she’d be tapping them on the shoulder and giving them one of her meanest come-to-Jesus looks. Fiona eased the phone from her purse, opened a hymnal, and laid it inside. Instantly, a message from each of her sisters popped up, asking the same thing: Where in the hell have you been?
She typed in: I was driving alone all night, except for a few hours when I fell asleep at the bottom of the Palo Duro Canyon. It was worth every hour because I found what I was looking for. She sent it to both of them with the flick of a fingertip.
“And that was?” Jud whispered.
“You were reading over my shoulder.”
He nodded.
“That’s not nice.”
He tilted his head to the side. “I was worried.”
She turned her phone off, returned it to her purse, and sat up straight, determined to hear the story of baby Jesus again. Her sisters would have questions. Jud would have questions. Even Dora June would grill her, but right then Fiona didn’t want to answer any of them. She wanted to enjoy her decision because it seemed right. Every other plan she’d made felt as if she had to work at it. She’d decided this morning that there was no plan. She would enjoy life wherever she was, take what it offered and make the best of it and hope that Madam Fate or Lady Destiny would lead her in the right path.
If Jud Dawson was part of that future, then so be it. If he wasn’t, well, it had been an interesting two weeks and she’d always be grateful to him for what they’d had, no matter what it had been. It was the unrest that he’d brought into her life that had caused her to find harmony in her soul.
“Now I’ll ask Truman O’Dell for the benediction,” the preacher said.
Fiona jumped back to the present and wondered where the thirty minutes had gone. She hadn’t heard anything the preacher said. Maybe he’d talk more about the birth of Jesus next week and she vowed she’d pay more attention.
“Where have you been?” Dora June caught her at the end of the pew.
“Driving and soul searching,” Fiona answered honestly. “Are we ready to go see Granny and do some shopping this afternoon?”
“Did you do any good by driving all night?” Dora June’s expression left no doubt that she was serious and that she would have answers.
Fiona nodded. “Yes, ma’am, I did.”
“Good. We’ll talk details later. For now let’s gather up the family and go shopping. I could get used to this kind of lifestyle.” Dora June smiled.
“Yes, we will talk details later,” Lizzy said right behind her. “You scared the hell out of us.”
“I lived in Houston for years. You didn’t know where I was for a whole week, maybe more, at a time and you didn’t act like this,” Fiona said.
“Things were different in those days,” Jud whispered close to her ear. His breath on her neck sent shivers down her spine.
“Hey, if you’re through whisperin’ sweet things in Fiona’s ear, I’m ready to go eat. If we slip out the back door, we can beat the rest of these people to Nadine’s and get our dinner quicker,” Truman said.
“Truman O’Dell,” Dora June gasped.
“Y’all could be about your shopping trip sooner if you’d do the same thing,” Truman told her.
“Do what?” Allie returned from the nursery with Audrey.
“Sneak out the back door to go shopping,” Fiona laughed.
“I will if Dora June will,” Allie said.
“I reckon the preacher has plenty of people to shake his hand.” Dora June nodded. “Lead the way, Truman. I feel like a kid again. Remember when we was dating and we’d do this so we could have a little bit of time together?”
“Shhh.” Truman actually blushed. “You’ll be givin’ these kids ideas.”
Jud touched Fiona on the arm. “Tonight?”
She nodded.
Tonight might not be sex or making love, and when she was done telling him what she intended to say, he might not even want to talk to her again. Thinking of the talk they were going to have, she decided it would occur while sitting in the two wingback chairs and not in either of their bedrooms.
“I want to eat at that little family restaurant in Seymour,” Dora June said on the way to Allie’s van. “I’m buying today and there’ll be no arguments. I hear they’ve got fried chicken on the all-you-can-eat buffet and it’s been a long time since I got to eat fried chicken that I didn’t cook.” She opened the door and crawled up into the front passenger seat.
Allie tossed the keys to Lizzy. “You can drive. Baby girl is fussy today.”
Lizzy caught the keys, got inside, and buckled the seat belt.
“I do hope Irene is herself today,” Dora June said. “I’d love to sit and talk to her like we did for that little while when we decorated the tree.” She fixed her big black shiny purse just right in her lap and wrapped her arms around it. “Do any of y’all know what’s going on with Truman? He’s actin’ strange lately. Talkin’ to himself and frownin’ like he’s arguing with someone.”
“Blake told me this morning that he’s arguing with God over something,” Allie said. “We’re all ready, Lizzy. You can go now.”
Lizzy started the engine, backed out, and headed north toward Seymour. “Okay, Fiona, start talking.”
“About what? I told you I drove most of the night and most of the morning to get to church on time.” This feeling was all so new that she didn’t want to talk about it right then. Selfishly, she wanted to hug it close and let it all sink in before she tried to explain what she’d figured out. Besides, what if she was wrong? Why give them false hope if in a few days the aura of peace disappeared?
“Why did you drive all night and where did you go?” Allie asked.
“Y’all ever hear that song by Sara Evans called ‘Suds in the Bucket’?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Lizzy asked. “Don’t change the subject. We want details and we aren’t going to talk about old songs.”
“It is a detail,” Fiona said. “I think it was a detail before I ever left home to go to college. I left the suds in the bucket and the clothes hanging on the line.”
“You did not,” Allie said.
“Figuratively speaking, I did. I left behind all the things that I did back then. My boots and my country girl clothes. I didn’t leave them on the line but hanging in my closet and in my dresser drawers,” she argued.
“Go on,” Dora June said.
“Last night, I left the store and when I got home the house was dark. Jud was delivering another calf and that song came on the radio and I got that same feeling I had back then. The same thing that I felt when I was a little girl and decided to leave Dry Creek and go on an adventure,” Fiona said. “I wanted to run away. It didn’t matter where or how long. I could not go in that house. It reminded me of all those times I went home to that depressing little apartment in Houston.”
“Okay, then what?” Allie asked.
“I drove to Seymour and then to Vernon and all the way to Claude, right on the edge of the Palo Duro Canyon. I stopped and got coffee because I was getting tired. Every single song on the radio reminded me of Dry Creek.” She wasn’t going to tell them that most of them reminded her of Jud. “On a whim, I turned down into the canyon rather than going on to Amarillo, which was my first plan. I got sleepy, almost ran off the road and…” She went on to tell them the rest of the story, leaving out the part that Sara Evans’s other song played in settling her mind.
“So now what?” Dora June asked.
“So now I’m through making plans. They always fail me and I’m going to see what each day brings. It’s not easy for me because I’ve always had a plan but knowing that I don’t have my life mapped out for the next ten or twenty years brings me a certain amount of tranquility.”
“Good,” Allie said.
“Does that mean you aren’t leaving Dry Creek?” Dora June asked.
“It means that I’m not closing the door to anything, even living in Dry Creek. Seems like the harder I fight against living here, the more miserable I get and the more trouble it gets me into,” she said. “And now can we please talk about the ranch party and Christmas?”
“Not until I fuss at you for sleeping in your car. You should have stopped in Claude and rented a room,” Dora June said sternly.
“Sleeping in the car and my near brush with an accident is what brought me to my senses,” Fiona said.
“Well, I’m glad that I didn’t know that’s what you were doing. I wouldn’t have slept a wink. Okay, now, girls, I expect you all to get your ten dollars’ worth at this buffet dinner,” Dora June giggled.
Before she took their order, Sharlene leaned close to Jud’s ear and whispered, “What in the hell is going on? Did y’all drug Truman?”
Jud cupped a hand over her ear and said softly, “No, he’s here of his own free will.”
“With all y’all Dawsons? He hates you,” Sharlene said.
“Not anymore.” Jud smiled.
“Good God, man! Do you whisper sweet things in all the women’s ears?” Truman asked.
“Most of them,” Blake chuckled. “It’s the Dawson in us. Be careful or you’ll be whispering in Dora June’s ear. Our bad habits are contagious.”
“Lord, I hope not,” Truman sputtered. “Do y’all have to play Christmas music in here? I swear it’s all a man hears from Thanksgiving until after the twenty-fifth of the month.”
“Well, it is the holiday. Don’t be an old scrooge, Truman. What can I get you?”
“I’m sick of turkey and dressing already, so I want a big old greasy hamburger basket with a double order of French fries and a piece of Nadine’s apple pie for dessert. And I’m paying for Jud’s dinner but not these other two.”
Blake held up a finger. “I’ll have the same and I’ll take the ticket for all of us.”
“Bullshit! I ain’t acceptin’ no charity from you.” Truman’s eyes narrowed and his jaw set so hard that Jud thought he might break the bone.
“It isn’t charity. I intend to take all your money when we play dominoes and I don’t want you to run short and quit playing after the first game,” Blake said. “It would be a shame for you to have to go pout in your room and for us to have to call Herman in to finish up the afternoon game.”
“Y’all best stop threatening me with him or I’ll go over there and eat all by myself,” Truman said. “Besides, he can’t play dominoes worth shit. So you can buy my dinner but don’t you think for one minute you’ll come out the winner when this day is done.”
“That true, Jud?” Toby asked. “Is he really that good?”
“He’s tellin’ the truth.” Jud nodded.
“Okay, then Blake is paying, right?” Sharlene asked. “And just for the books, if I was bettin’ on who’d win the most games today, I’d put my money on Truman. He won the competition last summer at our first annual summer festival. They set up tables over there in the corner and he beat the socks off everyone.”
Truman nodded curtly. “Herman was the first one to fall. Too bad we wasn’t bettin’ that day or I’d have taken all his money, too.”
“I’ll have the same thing he’s eating,” Toby said. “Maybe his luck is in the dinner.”
“My luck, son, is in my skill,” Truman told him.
“Just make it four,” Jud said.
“Will do. Sweet tea all around?” Sharlene asked. “And apple pie after?”
“Pecan pie for me,” Blake said.
Sharlene nodded and hurried off to give Nadine the order and the gossip before the next group of church folks came into the café.
“So y’all goin’ to take my advice and keep them two bull calves?” Truman asked.
“I think we are,” Blake said. “You’ve got a good eye for cattle, Truman. Why would you ever raise goats?”
“Them is Dora June’s goats. She says them kids that come along in the spring is her babies. She don’t seem as took with them the past couple of weeks since she’s got your wives to tear around the country with on Sundays.” He sat back in his chair so that Sharlene could unload four glasses of sweet tea on their table.
“Maybe Audrey has replaced them,” Blake said. “That little girl’s going to be a charmer.”
“She already is,” Toby said.
“I need some advice and I reckon you three can keep a secret, can’t you?” Truman blurted out.
“I don’t know about these two”—Jud pointed in either direction—“but you can count on me.”
“Come on now,” Blake said. “I never did tattle on you, not one time.”
“You got to promise me you won’t breathe a word,” Truman leaned in and whispered.
“Promise,” they said in unison.
“I’m tired of arguing with God. He wins. Dora June has stood beside me for fifty years, and I think she was serious about seeing the whole United States in an RV. So I’m thinkin’ about buyin’ her one for Christmas as a surprise.”
Jud came close to spewing tea across the table. “And you’re going to live in it on your property until you get things sold?”
“Hell no! This is where I need you boys. I ain’t got the time to get rid of my livestock, and that’s all I got left on my place. I’m not even sure I want to sell the ranch until we see if we want to keep livin’ like hoboes or if we want to come back home and rebuild.” He paused.
The silence at the table was so pronounced that it reverberated in Jud’s ears. “When are you going to buy this thing?”
“One day next week when me and you is doin’ our chores. She saw one up in Wichita, so we could go up that way and pick out a real nice one and pay for it. Then if one of y’all would help me, I’d—”
“Hey, y’all mind if I sit with you?” Deke asked.
“Drag up a chair,” Blake said.
“I reckon he’ll have to know now,” Truman sighed.
“Know what?” Deke motioned for Sharlene to bring him a glass of sweet tea. “And I want the turkey and dressing special,” he said.
She nodded and brought the tea right over to the table.
“You want to tell him?” Blake asked.
Truman brought him up to speed.
Deke’s eyes were about to pop out of his head when the old guy stopped talking. “You serious? If you are selling, I want first chance at your cattle.”
“Get in line behind these boys. You want my goats?” Truman asked.
“If you’ll let me have first choice of the cattle, I’ll take all those goats.”
“What do y’all think?” Truman asked the other three. “You want the goats to get the cattle?”
Blake shook his head. “Allie will want to bring every kid in the house in the springtime. I’ll stand back and let Deke have the cattle if he’ll take the goats.”
“I’ll make you a deal on the whole lot of them and throw in all the hay in my barn as a bonus,” Truman said.
“You be sure about this before we shake on it, Truman,” Deke said. “I’ll give you a couple of days to think about it.”
“I’ll think about it until I go look at them RV things. If it don’t seem right, then all bets are off. Since we got five of us, why don’t we play poker this afternoon, instead of dominoes?”
“You as good at poker as you are at dominoes?” Jud asked.
“You’ll have to play a few games to find out,” Truman answered.
“I’m in if it’s poker. What time are we playin’?” Deke asked.
“Right after we get through eatin’. You got enough energy to play after chasin’ women all night?” Truman asked.
“It’s chasin’ them women that has my blood pumpin’, Truman. This might be the day that goes down in the history books as the day Deke Sullivan whipped Truman,” Deke answered.
“When pigs fly,” Truman growled.
“You better be duckin’ because there’s a possibility they’ve sprouted wings. Look around the table at who you are having Sunday dinner with. Bet you never thought that was possible, did you?”
“I was right about one thing. All y’all ain’t nothing but a bunch of smartass kids,” Truman said.