Chapter 13
That prickly feeling on the back of Brodie’s neck every time that Audrey was nearby let him know the very minute that she and Hettie came into the sanctuary.
He glanced over his shoulder, locked eyes with her, and waited until she looked the other way before he turned slowly and stared straight ahead.
But the image of her wearing an orange dress that hugged all her curves was branded on his brain.
It didn’t help when they sat down in the pew in front of the one that he and his brothers shared with Ursula and Remy.
Brodie didn’t even try to pay attention to Parker’s sermon that morning, not with Audrey sitting close enough that he could get a whiff of her perfume every time he took a breath.
Even the voices of the old guys who added an amen every so often during the service sounded like they were far away.
His thoughts bypassed all the bantering between him and Audrey in the past three months and landed on the two really great conversations they’d had the past week.
The vibes between them had been strong, but he wasn’t sure if she had felt the same thing.
Knox elbowed him in the ribs and jerked him back to reality. “Were you sleeping with your eyes open?”
“Yep,” Brodie whispered, and looked down the pew at the family all bowing their heads.
He dropped his chin to his chest, closed his eyes, and listened as an older man thanked the good Lord for the day and the good sermon and ended with a plea to keep everyone safe on their journeys home and said amen.
Then there was the normal shuffling noise of people getting on their feet and conversations starting as folks walked down the center aisle toward the double doors, where Parker stood to shake hands with the folks as they left.
Brodie was last in the line, which meant Ursula, Remy, Tripp, and Knox filed out into the crowd before he did. As luck would have it, his shoulder brushed against Audrey’s when they both stepped out into the aisle at the same time. Hot little sparks danced all around them, but he just smiled.
“Good mornin’, Audrey,” he said.
“Mornin’ to you, Brodie,” she replied.
“Don’t you even be speaking to my niece,” Hettie scolded. “And I’m still waiting for you to fix that fence. It’s a rotten eyesore.” She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “God, you can lay the sin of me swearing in church on Brodie Callahan. He made me say that word.”
“Hey, now,” Brodie said. “I didn’t say anything to you, Miz Hettie, so don’t go blaming me for your anger. And for your information, I’m not going to fix that fence. I’m going to take it down.”
Hettie grabbed her heart and gasped, “You can’t do that!”
“I own it, so I believe I can,” Brodie said. “I won’t get around to it this week, but I will before summer is finished.”
“I hope God sends locusts to ruin your orchards,” she barked at him.
“A barbed-wire fence won’t keep locusts on my farm and not yours.
They might have breakfast at my place, but when they see all those lovely corn plants, they’ll have dinner on your land,” he told her.
“Speaking of food, can I take you and Audrey out for lunch? I promise it will be better than you having to scoot around in a chicken yard.”
“You can go to…” she stopped herself midsentence, and with her chin tilted up so high that she could have drowned in a rainstorm, she headed down the aisle at a fast pace.
“When you bait her like that, I have to live with the consequences,” Audrey whispered.
Brodie flashed his best smile at her. “You could go to Sunday dinner with me at the Paradise. That way Bernie would be as mad as Hettie.”
“With that much hot anger, they could burst into spontaneous combustion and burn down the whole town,” she whispered.
“I was a volunteer firefighter,” he said. “With enough water, I could put the blaze out before it spread outside of their bodies.”
“When you get ready to sell your farm, give me a call, and for goodness’ sake, don’t take down that fence,” she said in a loud voice and hurried toward the doors.
“Why?” he raised his voice a little.
“My black dress is at the cleaners,” she threw over her shoulder.
For a full minute, Brodie puzzled over what she said, but when he realized what she had meant, he laughed out loud. Joe Clay nudged him on the back and asked, “Was that Audrey Tucker that said something to tickle you?”
“It was,” Brodie answered.
“Then I’m glad that Bernie is already outside.
She likes it better when you and Audrey are arguing or rolling around in the mud while chasing after a pig,” Joe Clay chuckled.
“But I am very glad that y’all have come to an understanding about blind dates.
That was a good thing to hear at breakfast this morning. ”
“Me, too,” Brodie said.
***
Hettie had already settled into the truck’s passenger seat and her seat belt was fastened when Audrey slid in behind the steering wheel. “Did you set Brodie straight?”
“I did,” Audrey replied, and started the engine. “Shall we go to the café here in town or drive to Nocona or maybe go to that barbecue place in Bowie that you like so well?”
“I didn’t sleep worth a”—she paused and sighed—“worth a dang last night, so let’s just go to the local café. The Sunday special is always chicken and dressing, and I’ve been craving that for a spell now.”
“Aunt Hettie, are you pregnant?” Audrey teased.
Her aunt slapped her on the arm. “I might ask you the same thing since you didn’t come in last night until the wee hours of the morning. Who have you been meeting on the sly?”
“I told you the last time you asked that I was seeing all three of the Callahan brothers,” she answered. “I think I might like Knox better. I do love a man with a little ponytail.”
“That is enough!” Hettie growled. “It’s a sin to even tease about such things, especially on Sunday.”
Audrey started the engine and watched the three Callahan men walk across the parking lot and get into Brodie’s truck. “Okay, then give me some advice,” she said. “Which of the other two should I choose if it’s a sin to be sleeping with Knox?”
“I told you that is e…nough!” She dragged out the last word into several syllables.
“Take us to the café, and then I’m going home for a whiskey sour and a long nap,” she declared, and gave Audrey a dose of the stink eye.
“And don’t you say a word about me drinking on Sunday.
God understands that I need something to wash the taste out of my mouth when I have to be in the same room with Bernie or any of those Paradise people.
And to have part of them sit right behind us?
Lord have mercy! I couldn’t even keep my mind on the sermon for wanting to turn around and swish a look down the whole pew that would melt all of them into a pile of nothing but boots and belt buckles. ”
“Even Remy and Ursula?” Audrey asked.
“I don’t want to talk about that anymore,” Hettie huffed.
Audrey didn’t tell her aunt that she wanted to do a lot more with Brodie than just look at him over her shoulder or that the vibes she felt during the sermon were purely physical and didn’t have a thing to do with spirituality.
She drove straight to the café, which was less than half a mile from the church, and after making three rounds in the parking lot, she finally found a spot and pulled into it.
“At least Ophelia and Noah will be the only ones of the Paradise family that we have to worry about today,” Hettie said as she unfastened her seat belt and opened the truck door. “I wish someone else owned the place, and then we’d be free of all of them.”
If wishes came true, Audrey would want Ophelia and the rest of the seven sisters for friends, but she didn’t voice that idea. Her aunt might actually combust right there in the truck and burn it to the ground.
“That’s a mean thing to say. If it weren’t for Ophelia and Noah, we wouldn’t even have a café in Spanish Fort,” Audrey said.
Hettie tilted her chin up and began to walk between the vehicles. “I’ve been good this morning. I didn’t say a word to Bernie and only spoke to Brodie to warn him about talking to you,” she said through gritted teeth, “so I can be mean if I want to. One balances out the other.”
A young waitress met them at the door and led them back to the last available table in the dining room. “Can I get you something to drink? Water, sweet tea, coffee?”
“Sweet tea,” Audrey answered as she sat down at the small table for two.
“Same,” Hettie said with a nod.
“I’ll bring that out with some corn bread muffins for y’all to munch on while you are deciding what you want.” She laid a menu in front of each of them and quickly hurried away when the bell above the door let her know more people were coming into the café.
“I don’t need to look at this,” Hettie said. “I want the Sunday special that was written on the blackboard inside the door.”
Audrey had noticed the board, but she hadn’t paid a bit of attention to what was on it. “And that is?”
“Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and a side of my choice,” she answered. “I can make a good chicken fried steak, but I hate cleaning up the mess. I can wait until another Sunday for chicken and dressing.”
Audrey looked over the menu and then laid it down.
“Well?” Hettie asked.
“I’ll have the same, and my choice of a side is fried okra,” she said.
“Mine, too,” Hettie said.
“And”—Audrey leaned over to whisper—“the waitress isn’t even a Paradise person, so that should make you happy.”
“It does,” Hettie said with a sweet smile.
***
All through Sunday dinner at the Paradise with most of the family gathered around the tables, Brodie kept replaying the conversations he’d had with Audrey, starting with the one in the store right after the tornado.
He liked all her fire and determination even then.
But what he liked even more was the heat that she generated in his body and heart when she kissed him during the fight with Linda Massey.