Chapter 14
The doorbell rang promptly at seven o’clock, and Ophelia’s breath caught in her chest when she opened the door. His jeans were creased and stacked up perfectly on his boots. The green in his plaid shirt matched his eyes. The scent of his shaving lotion and a drop of water on his blond hair testified that he hadn’t been out of the shower very long. She had a fleeting vision of both of them in the same shower, but she quickly blinked it away before she blushed.
“Wow! Just plain old wow!” Jake said. “You look amazing.”
“Thank you,” Ophelia said. “I was thinking the same thing about you. I would invite you in to meet my folks, but Mama is in her office and Daddy is still out in his shop working on things for Luna’s wedding.”
Jake opened the storm door. “Then we can go?”
“Yes, we can.” She picked up her purse from one of the ladder-back chairs. She looped her arm into his, and together they headed toward his truck. He opened the passenger door for her and was about to close it when Pepper came around the end of the house in a flash, growling and snapping like he was as big as a grizzly bear. He latched on to Jake’s pant leg and shook it as if he was trying to kill it graveyard dead.
“Pepper!” Bernie screamed right behind him. “You stop that right now!” She grabbed him, but he hung on to the pant leg until she popped him on the nose with her fingertip. “You’ve been a bad boy. There will be no extra treats for you tonight.” She shifted her eyes over to Jake. “I’m so sorry. Did he tear your jeans?”
Jake glanced down at his pant leg. “Looks like they’re okay to me. Just a little wet spot, and that will be dry before we get to the restaurant. I’m just glad he’s not as big as a pit bull. He would really be dangerous then.”
“You are a good man, Jake,” Bernie said, but she was looking right at Ophelia the whole time. “You two get on about your date, and I will talk to Pepper about his attitude.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Jake nodded and closed the passenger door.
Bernie set Pepper on the porch and shook her finger at the dog. She was giving him a heated lecture when Jake settled in behind the steering wheel. Ophelia couldn’t hear the words, and she couldn’t read lips, but she kind of felt sorry for Pepper.
“I’m so sorry about that,” Ophelia said. “Last time you were here, Pepper was nice. I never thought of him attacking you.”
“Maybe he was mad at the cats. Seems like they have a love-hate relationship.” Jake chuckled and nodded toward another truck pulling up beside his. “Looks like Noah is here. Are he and Tertia going out?”
“Not as in a date,” Ophelia said. “They’re going to check out a couple of diners this evening to get ideas for menus.”
Bernie gave Noah’s truck a look guaranteed to turn it into an iceberg. Noah got out and took a couple of steps toward the porch, and Pepper strutted down the steps and met him halfway. Noah was scratching him behind the ears when Tertia came out of the house. Bernie said something under her breath, and Tertia just smiled and gave her a hug.
Ophelia tried to bite back the laughter, but it escaped.
“What’s so funny?” Jake asked.
“Aunt Bernie does not want Tertia to have anything to do with Noah, not even if it’s just working for him in his new café when it’s built, and Pepper is being nice to him. She loves you and the dog attacks you like you are the enemy,” she explained.
“Well, then.” Jake chuckled as he drove down the lane. “I guess I have to win Pepper over, and Noah has to do the same with Bernie. I believe that I have an easier job. Why does Bernie feel that way about Noah?”
“No doubt about you having an easier time,” Ophelia agreed and went on to tell Jake about the fight between Noah and Tertia when they were in elementary school. “Aunt Bernie is of the opinion that ‘once a bully, always a bully.’”
“What about the fact that Tertia blacked his eye?” Jake asked.
“That was self-defense, and she gets a standing ovation,” Ophelia answered.
“Man, I’m glad I didn’t live here back then.” Jake chuckled.
Ophelia glanced across the console and tried to picture him as a little boy, but it was impossible. When he turned to look at her, she pointed out the driver’s side window. “Looks like the weatherman might be right.”
“Yep,” he nodded. “Maybe it will pass us on the south.”
“We can hope,” Ophelia agreed.
Dark clouds had gathered over the southwest, and a streak or two of lightning flashed through the evening sky as Jake drove a few miles west and then caught the road to the south headed toward Nocona. The ache in Ophelia’s toe reminded her that she should have worn something other than high-heeled shoes. Then smoke wafted into the truck, and she remembered the burned shirt.
Jake pointed to a lonesome old scrub oak tree standing out in a pasture to their left that was ablaze but still standing. “Looks like lightning got that one. Good thing it’s not beside a house.”
“But…” Ophelia cocked her ear to one side. “I was about to say something about a grass fire being close by, but I guess it’s the tree. I hear sirens.”
A mile down the road, the Nocona Fire Department truck sped past them. “With this wind, a spark on dry grass could cause a wildfire,” he said. “You ever been close to one of those?”
She nodded. “Twice. Daddy had to plow a fire break all the way around the Paradise. The blaze didn’t quite make it up that far, but we could see it coming over the hill and eating everything in front of it. I remember Ursula saying that it looked like it was dancing toward us.”
“As the crow flies, that burning tree is probably only a mile or two from my grape arbors.” Jake’s tone sounded worried.
“Do you want to go back and check on them?” Ophelia asked.
“Not since the fire trucks are here,” he answered. “Everything should be fine.”
He turned onto Highway 82 when they reached Nocona and headed west. The sign on the outskirts of town said that it was twenty-two miles to Muenster. The clouds had completely obliterated the sun, and streaks of lightning zigzagged through the sky more often than before. Ophelia wasn’t afraid of storms—never had been—but common sense said that no one should be out in weather like this. She would have been a lot more comfortable eating bologna sandwiches and watching a movie at Jake’s house.
“Did you see many tornadoes down in Jasper?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah!” he answered. “Seemed like I spent half of every spring in the storm cellar. Mama and Granny were terrified of storms, so they would shuffle us kids down into the shelter every time the weather got bad. We had two sets of bunk beds down there, so we would just go to sleep until it blew over. How about you?”
“They call our area Tornado Alley,” she answered. “We didn’t have a cellar the first year we were in the house, but by the next spring, Daddy had built a fancy one for us. We thought going to the cellar was a party. There is still a bookcase down there, and Mama always throws snacks in a tote bag to take with us. There’s no electricity, but we could read by lamplight, and we thought that was so cool.”
Jake slowed down when they went through Saint Jo, and then picked up speed on the far side of it. The sign there said that they were only nine miles from Muenster. Ophelia’s stomach growled loudly at the thought of the coconut pie at Rohmer’s.
“Hungry?” Jake asked.
“Starving, and be warned, I’m not a bit bashful when it comes to food,” she told him.
“That’s another reason I like you, Ophelia,” Jake said. “I always feel like I’ve chosen the wrong place when I take a woman out to eat and she barely touches her food.”
“Then you and I are going to get along just fine,” she said.
Jake didn’t have to slow down at either traffic light in Muenster. They pulled into the parking lot just in time to see a ball of fire rolling across the porch and then disappearing into the yard.
“What is that thing?” Jake asked. “It looked like a tumbleweed on fire.”
“It was ball lightning,” Ophelia answered. “It’s really rare, and I’ve only ever seen it one other time. That was out near Vega where Tertia taught school. I don’t understand how it happens, but it’s got a lot of power. Knocked me square on my butt when I saw it on the balcony of her apartment.”
“I’m going to take it as a good sign,” Jake said.
Big drops of rain splatted against the windshield. Ophelia wished once again that they were back at Jake’s trailer. Even without electricity, she would be a lot more comfortable there.
“Guess we’d better hurry up before the downpour.” He was out of the truck in a flash and opened the door for her. He took her hand, slammed the door, and they ran onto the porch—only to find a handwritten note taped to the inside of the window that said the restaurant was closed due to no electricity.
Jake kept her hand in his, and they were both soaking wet by the time they got back to his truck. He reached over into the back seat and brought up an orange and black throw with the Texas Longhorns logo on it and handed it to her. “Wrap this around you.”
“You are as wet as I am,” she said. “We can share.”
“I’ve got a denim jacket right here.” He grabbed it from the back seat and put it on over his wet shirt. “I’ll turn on the heat, and we’ll warm up pretty soon. Maybe we’ll even be dry by the time we get you back home.”
Ophelia used one corner of the fluffy throw to dry her hair. It would soon be so frizzy and poufy that she would look like a mop that had been hung out upside down to dry. She knew she should have paid attention to the signs—her aching toe, the ruined shirt—and stayed home that evening.
“Where would you like to go for supper now?” he asked, and then took off his glasses and pulled out a napkin from the console to dry them.
She took her phone from her purse and did a little research, then called the number for Sonic. When they answered she asked if they had electricity and if they were open, and then she ended the call.
“Sonic,” she said. “They’re open, but only for drive-through orders. It’s raining too hard for the car hops to take food to the cars.”
“I love burgers, but this is not the way I’d planned our first date,” Jake said.
“Sometimes plans get changed,” Ophelia said. “It’s only a few blocks from right here. Let’s hurry before they lose electricity too, and Jake, it doesn’t matter if we eat in your truck, or at a table with candles and cloth napkins. That you haven’t told me that I look like a cross between a drowned rat and a poodle dog right now makes this a good date.”
He flashed a brilliant smile at her. “Darlin’, you are beautiful even with wet hair and muddy high-heeled shoes.”
“You might need to wipe those glasses a little bit more, Mr. Brennan.” She grinned back at him.
“We’re close enough that I can see you fairly well without them.” His smile widened even more, and his eyes twinkled. “To the Sonic, it is, then. I’ll drive and you can navigate.”
“I can do that.” She pulled the blanket up around her shoulders and shivered.
“Want my jacket?” he asked.
“No, the heat is kicking on pretty good. I’ll be fine in a few minutes,” she answered.
“Think our second date will be better?” he asked as he drove away from the restaurant and followed her directions to the drive-in burger joint.
“You think there’s going to be a second date?” she asked.
“I hope so, and maybe the next one won’t be underwater. Look at that! Not a single vehicle at the Sonic.”
“Most people have the good sense to stay in out of this kind of weather,” she said.
“Only the brave and the beautiful venture out on a first date when the weatherman has issued a tornado warning,” he joked as he drove up to the window. “Do you know what you want?”
“A double bacon cheeseburger, double fries, a chocolate shake, and an order of soft pretzel twists,” she said without even a moment’s hesitation.
He relayed the order to the teenager inside. “And please double that,” he said as he passed a bill to her.
“Yes, sir. Drive around to the next window and we’ll get that right out to you.” The cashier took the money and started to make change.
“Keep it, and you have a good night,” he said.
“You too,” she said with a broad smile. “And a tornado warning isn’t something to get all worked up about. When the weatherman says we’re under a tornado watch, we begin to check the skies. If the sirens blow, then it’s time to take shelter.”
Jake drove up a few feet to the next window. Another teenager handed a sack and two drinks out to Jake, and he drove around to a stall and parked. The rain was coming down in sheets, and pounding so hard on top of the truck that it sounded like bad drumming. He opened the bag and handed half the food in it across the console to Ophelia, along with a paper napkin.
“I told my mother that I would rather have had the evening at your place than go out to a fancy restaurant,” Ophelia admitted as she removed the wrapper from the burger.
“And what did she say?” Jake asked.
“That we would have the ride over here and back to talk,” Ophelia answered and took a bite. “This is so good!”
He took a bite, chewed, and swallowed, and then said, “That’s because you were starving and half-frozen from that cold, wet rain. And Miz Mary Jane is right, you know. I wanted to impress you with a nice dinner, but spending time with you is what I really wanted.”
“Mama is always right, and I bet I don’t ever forget this date,” she told him.
“I won’t forget any date I have with you,” Jake said.
“Is that one of your best lines?” she teased.
“Just the truth, ma’am. Just the truth,” he answered.