Part 11 (1/2)
Maybe there didn't have to be a rest of the time. Screw life. Maybe they could just stay in bed and handle the s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g that way. But . . . ”I need you to help me fix a problem.” He hated adding more to her already crazy life.
”Wel now, I don't know diddly about veterinarian stuff but I'd be tickled to give you a decent biscuit recipe. Yours are like . . . dog biscuits. Last time I tried one I think I chipped a tooth. But Maxwel loves them. Can't get enough and they do seem to make his coat nice and s.h.i.+ny.” She wound her fingers into Rex's hair, giving him a loving look until her cel phone rang.
Not now, dammit, he thought. Not when he'd final y gotten up enough nerve to risk it al and tel her. With Jane Louise reaching across him to the nightstand he had just enough time to plant another kiss on the sweetest skin that belonged to the sweetest girl in al of Georgia.
”It's Mamma,” Jane said, studying the little phone screen.
Her jaw clenched, then unclenched, then tightened again.
She eyed the clock on the nightstand. ”And it's not going to be a good thing if she's cal ing me in the middle of General Hospital. What has Mamma gone and done now? When G.o.d was handing out common sense, f.a.n.n.y Lou was last in that particular line right behind Aunt Sadie, Uncle Wil , Cousin Hil y, and the rest of the Garrison clan.”
”Maybe she thought you were working over at the Foxy Snoot today and when you weren't there, she wondered where you and Maxwel were? Maybe she just wants you to pick out a new purse or something.”
Jane gave him a slit-eyed look.
”Right. General Hospital. What was I thinking?”
”It's not that I don't love Mamma and al my kin to pieces but I plucked out three more gray hairs this morning and at this rate of family agitation I'l be bald before thirty and that's only six months away.”
Letting out a deep breath, Jane answered the phone, paused, rol ed her eyes, cracked her knuckles, then downed the two Tums that Rex handed her before she disconnected. ”Okay, here it is in a nutshel . Mamma says it's a surprise for me, which means it's for her and one that is truly outlandish because she wouldn't tel me one clue over the phone. Something's up.” Jane Louise nibbled her bottom lip. ”I'd better go right now before things get worse.”
Jane slid from the bed and snagged her dress off the lamp. It had been one of those can't-wait-to-get-you-in-bed moments. Her hips twitched and he knew it was for his benefit. Thoughtful girl.
”Now what was it you wanted me to help you with? Oh, yes, the biscuit recipe.” Jane hopped on one foot then the other while pul ing on her heels and combing her hair with her other hand. How did she do things like that? Amazing creature. ”You stop by the house a little later on after you have office hours and I'l give you Aunt Sadie's prize concoction.” She blew Rex a kiss off the tips of her fingers and he could almost feel it land on his cheek. ”You stay just the way you are, you hear. Rock-bottom normal.”
”Boring.”
”I like boring.” She opened the door, snagged her purse in one hand and Maxwel in the other, then let herself out.
So much for spil ing his guts. He could have interrupted her but when a Mamma situation surfaced, Jane had enough ha.s.sle. And now he was going to add to it. He wanted to marry Jane Louise, make her life easier, help her deal with her family. Even have babies with her despite the questionable gene pool that scared the bejeebers out of him. Of course, Jane's love of family more than made up for that glitch.
But he didn't want a wife who saw him as a security blanket, a woman who loved him because he was the logical choice, because he was the easy choice. He didn't want a wife who only needed him. Rex glanced at the western sky. Tonight he'd find out if she real y loved him in spite of . . . everything. In seven hours they'd be together forever or they'd be history. And that possibility pained him to the depths of his soul.
Jane parked in front of the white Victorian that needed a paint job, roof job, gutter job, and had been the Garrison family home with random additions here and there for six generations. It was one of those places where the doork.n.o.bs stuck a little, the lights shorted out for no good reason and every stick of antique furniture, every bit of cut crystal carried over from Ireland, and every piece of sterling silver hidden in the cel ar away from those d.a.m.n Yankees during that unfortunate Northern occupation had a story al their own. Jane undid Maxwel 's puppy seat belt. She slid him into the navy stripe purse she rented from the Foxy Snoot, then headed for the front door painted half red and half green because Mamma couldn't make up her mind which. A car horn tooted, drawing Jane's attention to a . . .
”Oh, please.” She groaned to Maxwel . ”Don't let that be Mamma sitting behind the wheel of that pink Mustang convertible. Please let it be another fifty-five-year-old woman with Hol lywood sungla.s.ses, bouffant hair and a polka dot scarf sitting there.”
”Yoo hoo, Jane Louise, honey. Over here. Looky what I have.” Mamma gave Maxwel a pat, then took off her gla.s.ses, her big blue eyes flas.h.i.+ng. Jane found a Tums in her skirt pocket. That it was lint-coated and a little mushy didn't matter.
”Mamma where did you get . . . why did you get . . . how are we going to pay . . . take it back!” Jane ate the Tums.
”Now before you go getting yourself al out of kilter, hear me through. I got this deal from Jeremiah over in Garden City . . . which is nothing at al like a garden I might add and I'm never going to get used to that. It's just a jumble of concrete and weeds and I don't know why on Earth they don't fix the place up. Anyway, someone over there turned in this little beauty with only a few teensy weensy thousand miles on it so I got Henrietta here for a steal. Isn't she precious!”
”Steal is the only way we can afford Henrietta.”
”And don't the two of us appear right smart together?”
Mamma fluffed her hair and looked sublime. ”Like you and Maxwel , we're a team.”
”Maxwel 's from the shelter, eats a thimble ful of food and doesn't get ten miles to a gal on of gas.”
”Wel , your Aunt Sadie and Uncle Wil wil think Henrietta is a fine idea.”
”They think their chicken taxidermy business is a fine idea.”
”Roosters are a prize possession in these parts, you know that.”
Jane wanted to add so are horses but thought it best to keep that piece of information to herself. Mamma tossed her long scarf over her shoulder, the silk polka dots floating off in the autumn breeze just like Jane's protests. ”I need to be off now and show the garden club ladies my new ride.
That's what the young man at the car dealers.h.i.+p said. Lady, that is some sweet ride you have there. ”
”I thought T-Bone and the guys were fixing up the Suburban for you. The Suburban's a fine car and it's paid for.”
”T-Bone's a good mechanic and a fine man, and I'm sure that there car is just peachy for someone. But for me to pick a blue '88 Chevy over a new pink car! Mercy!” Mamma giggled, looked more thirty than fifty-something, and purred off down Julian Street pretty as you please without a care in the world. She could do that because she and the whole rest of the Garrison clan left al the caring up to Jane Louise. It was her duty to take care of them al and that was fine. Aren't we lucky as a bouquet of shamrocks to have Jane Lousie in the family to get us through. How many times had she heard that? A bazil ion. To the point where she often wondered if she was adopted. 'Course she wasn't. She was the spitting image of Big Daddy . . . minus manly hair patches, a hundred and fifty pounds, catastrophic cholesterol, and the ability to drink anyone under the table . . . G.o.d rest his soul.
”Jane,” came Rex's voice behind her. ”Did I just see Mamma in a pink convertible? Sweet ride.”
”No ride. She should walk. Take the bus. Skip. A unicycle would work, though Mamma on a uni is a bit over the top.
But that we could afford.” Jane snagged Rex's arm, dragged him behind the row of blooming magnolia trees in the front yard, put Maxwel down and threw her arms around Rex and kissed him. She added a good deal of tongue to help forget the Mustang and get her brain infused with more pleasant thoughts. Rex was a very pleasant thought indeed with his black hair, gray eyes, fine build, incredible lovemaking skil s, and abundant sanity. His strong protective arms slid easily around her, making her feel warm and secure just like he always did. His hands cradled her bottom, bringing her close to his glorious arousal. ”I can always count on you to be here and make things right.”
She felt him stiffen al over and when they were in this type of situation there was usual y only one stiff part of Rex's anatomy. ”Are you okay, sugar?”
”Fine as can be.” He grinned but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Now what? ”This is a nice welcome,” he added before she could ask him what was going on. ”Mamma needs to buy cars more often.”
”Don't you dare even think such things, Rex Barkley. My family's loopier than ever today. Mamma and the car. My aunt and uncle out recording rooster crows for a CD they're putting together to go with their business. It must be a ful moon tonight or the stars are lining up in the heavens or something.” Her lips drew his bottom one slowly into her mouth, her insides doing a slow Savannah meltdown over him.
”Now that you mention heavenly bodies . . .”
”Are you talking about little ol' me?” She administered little love bites to his chin and did a suggestive wiggle in his arms.
”Yes.” He panted. ”Definitely you and that planet thing doesn't come along as often as you think. Some combinations just happen every five years, in fact. Transits of Venus is one. It's where the Earth and Venus line up with the sun and did you know that Venus is the G.o.ddess of love and that's a very powerful G.o.ddess and-”
”And what about the G.o.ddess you have right in your arms, Rex Barkley?” She stopped biting and thumped his chest with the flat of her hand. ”I'm kissing you like crazy here in case you didn't get the point. This is cal ed making out and if you're lucky, mister, maybe I'l even let you get to second base.” She winked. ”I so do like you getting to second base, Rex.”
But instead of taking her up on her offer, he held her hand and led her over to the front steps. ”You'd better sit down, Jane Louise.”
”What on Earth is wrong with you?” He set her on the top step and pul ed the bottle of Tums from his pocket. ”You forgot these at my place and you're going to need them.”
Jane jumped up, the something's wrong feeling back in ful force. ”Are you breaking up with me? That must be why you're acting like . . . like you're from my family.” She threw her hands in the air and walked in little circles around Maxwel to try and get calm. ”How could you do this and on such a pitiful y rotten day when-”
”I'm not breaking up with you, Jane.” He fol owed behind her. ”I just have this problem. I'm not exactly what I appear to be.”
She stopped and faced him. ”You're going to go and tel me you're gay? That's what Jimmy Harris told Ida Jones when he wanted to break up with her. 'Course it was a big fat lie and she went after him with that derringer her daddy keeps in his desk drawer and-”
”We just made incredible love an hour ago. I think the gay issue is off the table.”
”Right. Off the table.” Jane pul ed in a deep breath feeling a bit better. ”Wel , you're acting al weird and no one knows weird better than me.”
”I'm . . . Oh, boy.”