CHAPTER SEVEN MARRIED
CHAPTER
SEVEN
Married
Once Cora had agreed to marry him, Roscoe felt less in a rush to get to the war.
He hadn’t expected that. With Christmas just around the corner, he and Benny had planned to wait until the twenty-sixth to go to the justice of the peace and sign up for service, but Momma North made it clear she didn’t care what kind of scheme they had going on: if he wanted to marry her daughter, Roscoe would have to come courting.
She had no intention of letting the church gossip squad speculate about why Cora married a man she wasn’t even dating.
He came by most nights, sometimes taking her to a picture show, sometimes out on long walks.
Most times he sat with the family at home, talking and laughing.
He enjoyed being part of a real family. It was something he’d missed out on after his daddy up and left when Roscoe was only seven, walking away from his responsibilities like stepping out of too-tight shoes.
And then his momma started bringing home a string of bad boyfriends, each one worse than the last. Those years had nothing to do with family.
She finally ran off with a no-account swindler when Roscoe was sixteen, and he went to live with Benny’s family for the next two years.
He’d fantasized about truly belonging. Now he would.
Cora wouldn’t let him kiss her, even for the church gossips, and he decided that was fine.
He’d wait until she was ready. He had learned how to do right by a woman by getting a good close look at all the ways men do wrong, and he’d seen how it was when a man took before a woman was ready to give.
He didn’t want to be like that. Lately, Cora had been letting him put his arm around her waist or laying her head on his shoulder. They’d get there.
He realized pretty quickly that Momma North was using the courtship as a delay tactic to keep Benny home longer, but he didn’t mind. He settled into a rhythm with them of dinners, church and visits to Aunt Teen. It was nice. Familiar. And felt like the beginning of a promise.
Christmas came and went, and by the time New Year rolled around, Roscoe had become a fixture at the North household, and happier than he’d been in years, so when Cora and Momma North asked him to wait a little longer, he didn’t see why not.
Benny, on the other hand, paced the house like a caged lion. By the middle of January, he’d had it.
‘Is this happening or not?’ he exploded at Roscoe one day. ‘Because I’ve waited long enough. If you’re backing out, tell me now, and I’ll find a new plan.’
The last thing Roscoe wanted to do was back out. ‘We don’t want to rush her,’ he said weakly.
‘Rush her? It’s been over a month. You agreed to do something, now be a man and do it.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Cora said with steel in her voice. ‘Roscoe is being a gentleman, and more generous than you had any right to ask him to be, and he’ll do it in his own good time, not yours.’
Roscoe warmed with pleasure to see her spring to his defense and felt a bond solidify between them.
Roscoe-and-Benny was becoming Roscoe-and-Cora.
But Benny was right that he’d waited longer than he’d meant to.
He’d let pleasant days and Momma North’s courting plans derail him, so that week he went to the justice of the peace to make an appointment to get married.
The earliest date they could offer him was the second week of February. There’d been a run on weddings.
The icy weather on the morning he was to marry caught Roscoe by surprise.
Northern winds had blown through Florida, chilling the state so bad he’d woken up to frost on the windows.
At the courthouse, he tucked his hands up under his arms and stamped his feet for warmth, waiting for Cora and the others.
His suit jacket, old and too small, splayed open leaving his chest exposed to the biting cold.
Jasper turned up first, not even trying to dress up.
‘Nice of you to make an effort for my big day,’ he said.
Jasper shrugged. ‘I thought of trying to find a suit, but then I thought, I might be dressing up for nothing.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
He rubbed the back of his head and twisted his face into a hesitant question. ‘Are you sure about this?’
‘Yes,’ Roscoe said, and he was. This was a win, win, win.
Good for Benny, good for Cora and good for him.
He’d had a soft spot for Cora for years, and in the weeks he’d spent courting her, she’d warmed to him, offering a gentle word here, a kind gesture there.
Just yesterday she’d told him he was a good man, and his heart had melted and swelled.
The marriage was going to work out just fine.
‘I know you wouldn’t ever marry, Jas, but this is right for me.’
Jasper frowned and blew noisily through trumpet-trained lips, making the sound extra loud. ‘I might marry.’
‘Yeah, right.’ Roscoe stepped closer, glancing down the street and lowering his voice. ‘I’ve known you your whole life. You think I don’t know?’
Jasper’s eyes widened and he froze. For a second, it seemed like he’d admit to what Roscoe had realized years ago but never spoken about. There’d never been a girl for Jasper, never a date, never even a lingering look, until he’d started bringing Lee around.
Jasper shook his head, clenched his jacket tighter closed, took one step back, and then another. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He shuffled further away, turning from Roscoe and looking down the road like he wanted to bolt.
‘Forget it, okay? I don’t know what I’m saying.’
Jasper bobbed his head, arms clenched tight to his chest. He didn’t come closer.
‘It’s wedding jitters,’ Roscoe said. ‘I’m sorry, man.’
Down the street, Cora’s aunt Teen and cousin Patsy were headed over. By the time they reached them, Jasper had smoothed his expression, replacing tight lips with an overstretched smile.
‘Well, look who we’ve got here,’ he called to them. ‘You two look like a couple of Hollywood movie stars.’ Jasper looped his arms through theirs. ‘And you smell good enough to eat.’ He wiggled his eyebrows at Patsy, who socked his shoulder.
‘Will you hush and behave for once? You’re going to a wedding, not a juke joint.’
Benny and Momma North arrived with Cora, shivering in a thin dress. She huddled in her short coat, pulled tight under her chin as her skirts wrapped around her legs, twisting in the wind. In her hands, she clutched a small bunch of snapdragons for a bouquet.
‘Good,’ Benny said. ‘We’re all here. Let’s go in.’
The ceremony was quick, more business than romance, but when the justice of the peace asked for the ring and Roscoe produced a thin gold band, the look of surprise and pleasure that flooded Cora’s face warmed him to his core.
He’d done the right thing in using his savings to get it for her.
They made promises to one another with an I do each, and it was over with You may now kiss your bride.
Roscoe leaned forward and hesitated. They were not a normal bride and groom, and all the weeks of Momma North’s forced courtship hadn’t changed that.
He didn’t know where it left them with kissing, but Cora tipped her face to his, inviting him, and he pressed his lips to hers, probing for a response that came back hesitant, until Benny clapped them both on their backs.
Grinning, Benny grabbed Cora by one arm and Roscoe by the other and marched them out of the door like a cotillion threesome, their shoes echoing noisily in the wide hall.
Back at Cora’s, Momma North made a wedding feast of pork chops and gravy, lima beans, stewed okra, yellow rice and buttermilk biscuits.
All Benny’s favorites. But despite the festive food, Momma North had the subdued air of being at a funeral and kept touching Benny’s and even Roscoe’s face, arms, hands.
Cora ate little and spoke less, and all Roscoe’s attempts to draw her out were met with flat smiles and unconvincing assurances that she was fine.
But Benny talked and ate for two. His excitement was palpable, and since their plan was to go down to the recruitment office to enlist in the morning, the whole evening felt like a send-off instead of a wedding.
Roscoe hoped to take his bride home to his boarding house for the few days they’d have until he got his papers through to report for induction, but when Jasper, Patsy and Aunt Teen left, Cora planted a chaste kiss on his cheek and wished him a good night.
Before he could put words to what he’d been wanting, she’d retreated down the hall to her bedroom and closed the door behind her.