Chapter 12
The Walmart parking lot only had a handful of vehicles in it on Saturday night, but then it was getting near to closing time when Brodie arrived.
He grabbed a cart sitting between two cars and pushed it into the store.
Tonight, he was shopping for one of those igloo type of dog houses for Pansy, because he was not going to sleep in that twin-size bed again.
The new house would protect her from all kinds of weather.
He would still take her for a nice long walk each evening, but he would be going home to the Paradise to sleep at night.
The way his luck was going, he figured he would crash carts with Audrey before he left the store. So, he peeked around each corner on the way back to the pet supplies. He loaded the igloo onto his cart and headed toward the checkout counter.
“Hey, Brodie!” someone called out behind him.
He turned around and saw Aunt Bernie waving from only a few feet behind him. She pushed her cart toward him and pointed at the huge box teetering on top of his cart. “Fancy meeting you here at this time of night. What is that?”
“A house for my pig,” he answered. Was this the right time to tell her that he wasn’t going on any more blind dates, or should he wait for reinforcement—like his brothers—to be around him to deliver the news?
“You’re sure going to a lot of expense for a pig,” Bernie said in a disapproving tone. “It’ll be a hard sell to get a woman to go out with you if I say you have a pot-bellied pig for a pet.”
The door is open wide. You might as well go on through it and hope for the best, the voice in his head said.
Brodie took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he spoke. “I appreciate all you have done and are trying to do, but I do not want to go on any more blind dates.”
Bernie drew her brows down and pursed her lips together. “I do not fail, so I’m not considering this a lost battle. I’m layin’ all the blame on you. I would have found a good woman for you eventually, but that pig got in my way.”
“You just put all the blame on my shoulders,” Brodie said, glad that the battle had gone so smoothly. “What are you doing out this late?”
“I’m out of wine and like the kind I can get here.
” She pointed down at a dozen bottles in her cart and then moved her finger to her lips.
“Don’t tell Ophelia and Jake. I wouldn’t hurt their feelings for anything in this world, but the truth is I like cheap wine.
I buy from their winery when I want the fancy stuff.
I’ve already been by the liquor store and picked up my Irish whiskey. ”
“Are you being sneaky?” Brodie whispered.
“Yes, I am.” She grinned. “And I promise not to set you up with another woman if you won’t tell that I sneak out late at night to do my shopping.”
He stuck out his hand. “Deal.”
She shook with him. “Looks like we’re both about done. How about we go by the Dairy Queen and have one of them Peanut Buster Parfait sundaes? They stay open until midnight, so we’ve got time.”
“I’d like that.” Brodie almost crossed his fingers behind his back.
He didn’t really want to go anywhere but out to the farm to set the igloo in Pansy’s pen and then get on home to get a decent night’s sleep in a bed that was big enough that he didn’t feel like he was back in the army and trying to sleep on a cot.
Having ice cream with Bernie is a small price to pay since she agreed not to send you or me and Tripp on any more blind dates, Knox’s voice whispered in his ear.
“Good,” Bernie said. “I’ll meet you there, and I’ll even treat.”
Brodie went through the self-checkout station, toted his pig house out to the truck, and set the GPS on his phone to take him to the Dairy Queen.
So far, so good, as far as luck went when it came to running into Audrey.
But he still checked out the whole dining area when he walked inside.
Only a couple of young folks, maybe even out on their first date, were sitting side by side and making a big deal out of feeding each other a chocolate sundae.
He wondered what it would be like to have the freedom to sit beside Audrey in a booth and feed her ice cream.
If he even asked her out, would she say yes or give him an ultimatum like selling his place to her for a date?
Would the barbed-wire fence always be between them, both literally and figuratively?
“No, it will not,” he muttered.
“What was that?” Bernie asked as she sat down across the booth from him.
“I was talking to myself,” he said.
“I do that a lot, or else I talk to Pepper. He’s a real good listener and never disagrees with me,” she said with a wide smile. “Now what do you want? Is a peanut parfait all right with you?”
“Yes, ma’am, but my mama would haunt me if I let a lady pay for anything when I’m out with her,” Brodie said as he slid out of the booth. “You sit right there, and I’ll go put in our order.”
He stood up at the same time the young couple did and let them pass by him. “Y’all have a good evening,” he said.
“Got to have Cinderella home by midnight,” the young man said and drew his girlfriend to his side so tightly that air couldn’t get between them.
“Drive safe,” Bernie said.
“Yes, ma’am,” the girl said.
They disappeared outside, and Brodie went up to the counter, made his order, and then went back to sit with Bernie. “I know you had a bar in southern Oklahoma. What made you leave it and come to Spanish Fort?”
“It’s a long story, but I’ll give you the short version.
I have a twin sister who disowned me years ago.
She married right out of high school and got a job as a cashier in a bank.
She was and still is deeply religious, goes to church every time the doors are open, and volunteers for everything that has to do with Jesus.
I’m not throwing shade, as you kids say today, at my sister.
What she believes is between her and God, and that’s none of my business.
I wish she felt the same about me,” Bernie said.
Brodie wished maybe he’d asked a simpler question, like did she like the nice day they had just had?
The lady who had taken his order brought their sundaes to the table, along with two cups of coffee, and set the tray in the middle of the table. “Coffee is on the house. We’ll be closing soon, and we’d just have to pour it out.”
“Thank you,” Bernie said, and ate the cherry on top of the sundae.
“Now, to get on with my story. My sister married the bank president, and they had three children: a boy, Joshua, and two girls, Mary Jane and Rachel. One of the girls and the boy took their mama’s side against me.
But Mary Jane, bless her heart, did not.
I never got to be around my nieces and nephew since I might be a bad influence on them, but when Mary Jane grew up, she kept in touch and didn’t judge me.
She let me visit her and the girls whenever I wanted.
After she moved up here close to the border, she and I became even closer.
I crossed the river and came down here even more often to visit her.
The rest of her family snubbed her for buying an old brothel and for writing what they called trashy books, but not me.
I always told her to follow her heart and not worry about what other people think. ”
“I bet she makes more money and has more joy doing what she loves than any of her family,” Brodie said.
“No doubt about that!” Bernie took a bite of her ice cream and then a sip of coffee before she went on.
“She still tries to keep in touch with them—calls her mama every week and tries to keep in touch with her sister, but most of the time all she gets there is Rachel’s voicemail telling her to leave a message.
Rachel has a couple of daughters, Joy and Clara, and they’ve always been as self-righteous as their mother.
But, anyway, that’s the reason I came to Spanish Fort.
I don’t have children, and Mary Jane is the only relative that was sweet enough to offer to let me live on the Paradise property.
She begged me for at least two years to retire and come down here before circumstances finally talked me into doing just that. ”
“What circumstances?” Brodie asked and finished off the last bite of his ice cream. He took a sip of his coffee and set it back down. “That is some stout coffee. It tastes like it’s been sitting in the pot all day.”
Bernie pulled a flask from her purse and poured a little into each cup. “That ought to cut the bitter. The story about me selling my bar is that a good-lookin’ feller, an old lover carrying Pepper and a dead goldfish, and my least favorite niece, Clara, walked into my bar one evening.”
“That sounds like the beginning of a joke,” Brodie said.
“It does, but it was the beginning of the circumstances that let me retire,” Bernie said. “This has been fun, though, but now it’s my turn to ask a question. Are you planning to live here in Spanish Fort forever, or is this whole organic farming business just a passing whim?”
“It’s a forever thing,” Brodie answered, and took another small sip of the coffee.
Be danged if Bernie wasn’t right. Whatever liquor she poured in the cup made it taste much, much better.
“I never thought I’d be able to buy a farm, but my mother and father left all of us boys pretty well fixed.
I didn’t think my brothers would stay here, but it looks like they love the area as much as I do. ”
“Even Knox?” Bernie asked.
“Joe Clay has told him that he can easily find enough construction work to keep him busy. The sisters have already been talking about getting him to design either additions to their houses or remodel what they have. That will keep him going for months, maybe years when you consider that he needs to help Joe Clay build a parsonage and also design and build a house for me,” Brodie answered.