Chapter 7
Willa Rose wished that at least one person she had met would have been hateful, or at least standoffish, but oh, no, they had to all be nice folks. Mary Jane and the sisters that were in the kitchen had even invited her to help fix lunch for all the family who had shown up at the house.
“Endora, you sit down in a chair, and we’ll visit while we get out the sandwich makings.
There’s a slow cooker full of soup because I thought it would be good on a cold day like this, so we should have enough to feed everyone.
Willa Rose, you get out the lettuce and tomatoes from the fridge and get them ready.
Rae, you can make a fresh gallon of sweet tea,” Mary Jane ordered everyone around.
Willa Rose knew the difference in the sound of an eighteen-wheeler turning into their driveway at home, so when Tertia asked if Nocona had sent a snowplow up their way, she shook her head.
“No, ma’am, that’s not a plow. It’s more than one big truck, and it sounds like they’re coming right up to the Paradise. ”
“The carnival is here!” Joe Clay called out.
“Are we going to get rides?” Heather asked.
“No, those are all packed away, but you could probably spend some time in the barn with the animals,” Joe Clay answered.
“But only if either me or one of your uncles or aunts go with you,” Rae told them.
Bernie made her way to the window and pulled up the blinds. “I love carnival people. They used to stop at my old bar when they were on their way home to Ratliff City. Such good, down-to-earth folks. I hope this ice and sleet lasts for days.”
“Did they bring the camel?” Daisy asked.
Heather grabbed Daisy’s hand and together they ran across the room to stand on either side of Bernie. “Can we ride him if they did?”
“Honey, I’m sure he’s tired of being ridden and would like to just rest for a few days,” Rae answered, “but we can go out there every day after school. Maybe they’ll even let us help with the feeding.”
“O…kay,” Heather sighed.
Willa Rose remembered using that same tone on her mother when she had to settle for a compromise to what she really wanted to do. That would have been twenty years ago, about the same time that her sister, Erica, graduated from high school and left for college.
“I’ll grab a bowl of soup later,” Joe Clay said as he put on his coat and headed out the back door. “I’m going out to make the visitors welcome.”
“And I’ve got a sandwich waiting for me at the old store, which is going to be Vada’s Antiques when this weather clears up.
So, I’m going back there to work on my sketches for where I’m putting things when the trucks arrive,” Willa Rose said.
There was just so much family she could handle for one day.
“Endora, I’ll drop in soon and we’ll talk more about the Christmas plans. ”
“Anytime,” Endora answered.
Willa Rose grabbed her coat, scarf, and gloves on the way through the living room and hurried outside before anyone else caught her.
She shivered as she hurried across the frozen, crispy yard.
Planning the holiday play and helping Rae figure out something new for her kids was causing her to already settle into the community more than she had ever intended to do.
She opened her SUV door and did a slippery dance on the ice.
If she hadn’t had a firm grip on the handle, she would have landed square on her ass and wouldn’t have stopped sliding until she hit the porch steps.
Finally, she got some traction and slung herself into the vehicle, just in time to hear Tripp laughing from the front porch.
She didn’t even stop to confront him but drove straight to the old store and carefully made her way up the ice-covered steps.
Fuming, she stomped into the warm room, shoved her gloves into her coat pocket, and tossed her scarf over an old ladder-back chair that looked too rickety to sit on.
She sat down on the floor close to the open-face heater with her sketch pad and pencil.
“It wasn’t funny. I could have broken my leg or, worse yet, my arm, and then how would I arrange everything in this store?
Maybe that and the fact that the trucks can’t bring my stuff to me is a sign that I need to go home and start an antique shop right there in Poetry. ”
“Hey.” Tripp stuck his head in the door.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped.
He came into the big, empty room and closed the door behind him. “I came to apologize for laughing at you.”
“Apology accepted. I’m busy,” she said.
He sat down beside her and looked at the sketch she had started. “Thank you, and I can see that, but you don’t have to be so prickly. Tell me, are you planning to cut and run by summer?”
“If you don’t leave me alone, I may be out of here as soon as this ice melts,” she answered.
“What’s so bad about me?” Tripp asked.
“Why do you want to know if I’m not planning on making this my permanent home?”
“I asked first,” he said.
Infuriating man! Willa Rose thought.
“Nothing is bad about you. Now your turn.”
“There’s a bet going on about whether you stay or go,” Tripp answered. “I figure if I know the exact time, I could win the pot.”
“I’ve only been here three days!” She could hear the chill in her own voice.
Tripp nodded. “I know Hank isn’t putting his house up for sale for a year, and that you have a smaller place in Poetry.”
“That’s right, and it’s nobody’s business but mine what I do in the future, and I am not going to tell you anything…” She clamped her mouth shut for at least two minutes.
“Well?” Tripp finally said. “Are you going to answer me or ignore me until I go away?”
“Neither one, because I have no idea when I might leave, or if I will,” she finally said.
“Fair enough,” Tripp told her. “But if you would give me a heads-up when you do figure it out, I could still win that pot.”
She slapped him on the forearm. “I believe that is called ‘insider trading.’”
Tripp chuckled. “Only if I get caught. Tell me, though, what did you do for fun in Poetry? I looked it up and it’s not even as big as Spanish Fort.”
“I lived there, but I went to school in Terrell, and there’s plenty to do there,” she argued.
“Were you one of those wild girls or a nerd?” Tripp asked.
“That, sir, is none of your business.”
“Ever go skinny-dippin’ or snipe huntin’?”
She bristled. “That is none of your business either. And I think you are baiting me into a fight.”
***
Tripp couldn’t argue that point. He had already gotten enough of a rise out of her to see that a temper was boiling beneath those pretty brown eyes. “Is it working?” he asked.
“Yes, and I don’t like it, so stop,” she told him.
He saluted her as smartly as he had seen Brodie do when he was in the military. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I never date military men, truck drivers, or firefighters,” she said.
“Did I ask you for a date?”
“No, but I’m just putting that out there,” she answered.
“I was not in the military. I have never been a firefighter. Brodie was both. I’ve never driven a truck and don’t even have a commercial driver’s license. And, honey, I wouldn’t date you either.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I don’t date anyone who is prettier than me,” he teased.
“Well, you should go out with mud ugly women, then,” she countered.
“On that note, I’m going home. You have a good day with your sketching, but the storm is going to get worse through the next few days. Call me if you can’t get out to go to Sunday dinner tomorrow.”
“I would never,” she told him.
“Let me finish, Willa Rose,” he said. “Call me and I’ll send Hank after you.
Church services had already been called off for tomorrow, but we always eat at the Paradise.
If you don’t show up, someone will come huntin’ for you.
I wouldn’t ever want to come in with you in tow, since I only go out with ugly women. ”
She jerked her head up and glared at him. He moved over slightly and cupped her face in his big hands. The anger left her eyes, and they went all dreamy.
“Don’t you dare,” she challenged.
“You should never dare a bred and born Texan,” he said.
His mouth closed on hers and her palms went under his unbuttoned jacket to his chest, sending waves of heat all through his body. When he released her, they were both panting.
“That was a big…” she gasped.
“What?” he asked.
“It was amazing, and I loved it, but…”
“But what?” He grinned. “Was it worth sticking around for another one? That’s the only way we’ll ever have a second. Because I’m here for good, putting down roots, and I don’t have time for a fleeting romance.”
“Not even if the kiss about melted all the ice from here to the river?” she asked.
“Not even,” he answered and turned to walk away.
She grabbed him by the arm, and suddenly her arms were up around his neck, her fingers splayed out in his thick hair, and her eyes were closed. She tiptoed up to meet his lips, and he almost pushed her away, but he had to see if that first kiss was as hot as it made him feel.
That time when she took a step back, she said, “Yep, it wasn’t just beginner’s luck. It was as good as the first one. I’ll see you at dinner tomorrow. And Tripp, I still won’t tell you if or when I plan to leave.”
He waved over his shoulder on his way outside where he took a running leap off the porch and slid like a professional ice skater all the way to his truck.
That was the result of skating in his socks on his mama’s hardwood floors when he was a kid.
The leather truck seats were cold, but he was still warm from the steamy kisses.
When he pushed the button to start the engine, the radio came on full blast. He sang right along with Josh Turner singing “Your Man.”
When he saw Knox’s vehicle in his front yard, he groaned, “This is not what I wanted to come home to.”