Chapter Twenty-Seven
“W
e didn’t grow up with this holiday in France, but I have embraced it since we came to this country,” Claude said when another burst of sparkles lit up the sky that night.
“I like it because it stands for more than just the United States winning independence. It reminds all of us of our own choices, doesn’t it?” Naomi reached over to the chair next to her and patted Claude’s shoulder.
Libby wondered if there was a story there to be told some other day. She took another sip of her wine and enjoyed the extra warmth that spread through her body. The heat that came from sharing a chaise lounge with Benny had nothing to do with the wine or the summer night. “Did you ever watch the fireworks from this spot with your dad?”
“No, just my grandpa,” Benny answered. “My parents divorced when I was twelve years old. Mother didn’t want custody, and Dad was busy with the oil companies up and down the West Coast that he owns. So I was sent to boarding school. I came here for holidays and the summers. Mother is somewhere in the UK with her third husband. Dad is still married to his work. I see him a couple of times a year, but like I told you before, Grandpa was my stability, and more like a father than a granddad. Opal and Minilee were my Sawmill grandmothers. Claude and Naomi were my Paris grandparents. I didn’t hurt for love or attention.”
“Do you ever hear from your mother?” Libby asked.
“I get a Christmas card almost every year, and sometimes she remembers my birthday with a card.” Benny hugged her closer to his side even though it was a hot night.
No wonder he hasn’t been in a permanent relationship yet, she thought. Although their backgrounds were very different, their upbringings still had the potential to produce mistrust and wariness.
“You do know the clock is ticking, right?” Claude asked. His silver hair shone under the lights.
“That’s right,” Naomi told him. “None of us—me or Claude, or your Opal and Minilee—are getting any younger, and we would love to have a baby to spoil.”
“I hear the clock, but I’m still young,” Benny answered.
“Yes, you are, but time goes fast,” Naomi said. “It’s been too long since we’ve heard laughter in this big, empty house.”
“Who knows what the future might bring,” Benny said and pointed to the sky. “That one is the biggest one yet. I bet it’s the end of the show.”
“They always save the best until last,” Naomi agreed. “The trouble with it being the last one is that you and Libby will leave. Are you sure that you won’t stay for the night?”
“It’s tempting,” Benny said, “but we have to open the store at seven in the morning, so we better go on home.”
Home!
Libby loved that word more than ever before. Her little one-room apartment and the front room of the station felt more like home than any place she had ever lived.
“I’m glad that the best is always saved for the last.” Claude patted Naomi on the shoulder. “That’s why we enjoy our old age so much, mon amour.”
Libby wasn’t sure what the endearment meant, but it had to be something like my love or my sweetheart, as they would say in Texas. She wanted a relationship with romance still in it even when Benny had sparkling gray hair like Claude’s.
Oh my gosh! How can I be thinking about a lifetime with Benny after only knowing him a few weeks? She threw a hand over her mouth to keep the words from blurting out.
“Sleepy?” Benny asked.
Libby faked a yawn. “Little bit.”
Benny stood up and extended a hand to help her. “It’s time to take Cinderella home. Naomi and Claude, thank y’all for making this a special day for us.”
She took it and loved the sparks that danced between them. The small amount of time they had known each other didn’t matter at that moment.
“We should thank you for making it a wonderful day for us,” Claude told him as he got to his feet and opened his arms for a hug. “Don’t be a stranger. Come around more often and spend time here.”
Naomi hugged Libby and whispered, “You are the first woman he ever brought home, and his eyes sparkle when he looks at you—but then, yours light up when his name is even mentioned. You have a good thing going.”
“I know, and thank you for reminding me,” Libby told her.
Libby awoke five minutes before her alarm went off on Friday morning. She rolled over and slung an arm around Benny’s broad chest and snuggled up to his back. For the past two weeks, things had been the same: work with Benny several days a week and spend most of their waking hours together on the days the store wasn’t open. They had been together every night in her apartment, and she loved it—but if she was truly honest with herself, sometimes she missed those days back in Austin when she could have some time alone. Even with her job and the volunteer work at the shelter, she could always carve out a few hours each week she could call her own.
Put it on the balance scale and figure out if being with Benny is worth the price of giving up your time alone, she told herself.
She couldn’t make the decision when she was half-asleep, so she closed her eyes for another hour. She awoke the second time to a delicious smell in the air and steam on her face; Benny was waving a mug full of hot coffee under her nose. She sat up and he handed the mug to her, then went to the counter and poured himself one.
“We missed our run this morning, but that extra rest was pretty good,” he said.
She sipped the coffee. “So was getting to snuggle up to you a little longer.”
“When we get furniture for the new house, we are definitely buying a king-sized bed.” He sat down beside her on the edge of the mattress.
“I was thinking that a twin-sized would be better,” she said with a grin. “That way you’ll always be close to me.”
“Darlin’, I’m never going to be very far from you,” he declared. “We should grab a protein bar and get dressed. The store opens in half an hour, and there’s already more than a dozen cars in the parking lot.”
“Have I got time for a quick bath?” she asked.
He wiggled his eyebrows. “It would be quicker for us to go over to the trailer and get a fast shower together. But”—he paused and chuckled—“it is so small that it will be like sleeping in a twin bed.”
She set her coffee mug on the bedside table and slung her legs out of bed. “Give me time to grab some work clothes.”
He grabbed the shirt he’d worn the day before, jerked it down over his head, and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll go on ahead and get the water adjusted.”
“Be there in five minutes, tops.” Even though she was excited about the prospect of taking her first shower with a man, she took a deep breath. Overwhelmed with all the emotions that were chasing through her mind and body, she still smiled and looked forward to what was about to happen.
At midmorning, Benny took half a minute from waiting on customers and grabbed one of the cookies Opal and Minilee had brought in that morning. “Did y’all have a good time yesterday at the birthday party for Sally?” he asked before he bit off a chunk.
“Wonderful, for the most part,” Minilee replied. “But you’re too busy for us to tell you the whole story right now. This is sure a hoppin’ day for the middle of the month. The first weekend usually brings everyone out to shop, not two weeks later.”
“Must be because Independence Day was so close to that weekend,” Opal said. “Folks were off traveling or staying home with the family and friends that came to see them. Why don’t you and Libby come over after work tonight for a game of dominoes?”
“Sounds great,” he said and hurried over to greet another group that had just come into the store. “Hello, and welcome. Take a look around, and call me if you need help finding anything. Feel free to help yourselves to the cold water bottles.” He nodded toward the cooler. “It gets a little warm in here this time of year.”
“Thank you.” An older woman headed across the room and passed out half a dozen bottles of water to her friends. “This is a really nice thing you are doing. There’s no way you could keep a big place like this cool. I’m looking for antique glassware, and I see a bunch over there on the side wall, so that’s where I’m headed.”
“Holler if you need me to get anything down from the top shelf for you,” Benny said, picking up two water bottles. He chuckled at the thought of the shower he and Libby had shared that morning. Two tall people in a tiny space had created a lot of heat, and even more giggles, but there was no time for sex—at least not that morning. He imagined what it would have been like and rolled the cold bottle over his forehead to cool him down, but it didn’t do much good.
The line of people waiting to pay for their items and get an invoice was backed up to the door so far that he could barely get it open. When he did, he took a step to the side. Libby was good with the customers, talking to each one about the item or items they were in the process of buying. Yet she was efficient and fast when she entered numbers, ran credit cards, or slipped the cash payments into the register drawer.
Simply standing back in the corner, watching her, made him so happy that he wanted to push everyone out of the way and take her in his arms for a long kiss. The only time he could remember being this excited was when he left boarding school on holidays and could spend time with his grandparents. He really should send Dolly a thank-you gift for talking Libby into coming to Sawmill.
When the last person in line finished paying out and collecting their invoices, he stepped away from where he’d been standing and set a bottle of water on the desk. “Thought you might need this,” he said, and bent to kiss her on the forehead.
“Thank you.” She smiled up at him, and that made him even happier. “Business has been steady from the time we opened the door this morning,” she said as she twisted the lid off the bottle and took a long drink.
He hiked up a hip on the edge of the desk. “I guess everyone is making up for that slow weekend we had right after the holiday. If this keeps up, we’ll be dog tired by Sunday evening, so no date night then.”
“Nope—but then, we agreed that date night would be sometime in the middle of the week, didn’t we? We’ll have to drag our tired butts home tonight, fall into bed, and go to sleep.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Or maybe do something that will ensure a good night’s sleep?”
“Hey, y’all ready to play a game of Moon?” Opal called out from the porch when they walked past her house that evening.
“Can we take a rain check?” Benny answered. “Exhausted tonight.”
“Sure,” Opal answered. “No problem. We’ve got leftovers from supper. We’ll bring them over so neither of you have to cook. We can visit while y’all eat.”
“Thank you,” Benny said.
“That didn’t sound very heartfelt,” Libby whispered. “I had no idea that we were planning to play dominoes with the ladies tonight.”
“It wasn’t heartfelt at all. I would rather eat a grilled cheese sandwich and have the rest of the evening with you,” he told her.
“Do you ever think that we need a night apart?” she asked.
“Do you?” he fired back as they went inside the station.
She kicked off her shoes at the door, and as usual, Fancy went to her favorite spot under the table. “Sometimes I do. Don’t you?”
“Has this got anything to do with me forgetting to tell you about Opal and Minilee inviting us to play dominoes?”
“No,” she answered, “it does not. We had a lot of customers. I understand how you could have forgotten about something that small. But we’ve always been honest with each other, and I’m just asking if we’re together too much. Are we rushing things? Will what we have fizzle out? Will we both want what we had in the beginning so much that we hang on just to be hanging on?”
“I’ve been alone four days a week, except for Elvis’s company, for the past year.” He pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. “I thought we were happy spending time together—and besides, today we only saw each other twice all day. That was only for a few minutes.”
Libby sat down across from him. “I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life, Benny. I never dreamed I could be in this place. You’ve helped me so much ... But I was alone most of my life. You know the story with Victoria. Then I got a job where I lived in a cubicle by myself, went home to spend most evenings alone. I volunteered at the shelter, but even with that, I had a lot of hours when—”
“We’re here!” Minilee called out. “And we brought a big old ham bone for Elvis to gnaw on. He wagged his tail so hard when we gave it to him that I thought he would lose his balance and fall over.”
Opal uncovered a casserole dish and a bowl. “We brought some burgers that were left over from yesterday’s cookout at Sally’s house.”
“And my potato salad,” Minilee added. “Judging from all the cars and dust they stirred up, I figure y’all didn’t get much of a break today.”
“We sure didn’t,” Libby said. “Thanks for supper. It all looks delicious.”
Minilee brought two beers from the refrigerator and disposable plates to the table. “We had quite the day at Sally’s, and I could have wrung Tatum’s neck for spoiling it for her grandmother.”
“Oh?” Benny opened the floodgates with that one word.
“Tatum got drunk and was using foul language. Sally told her that she should have stayed in the military and that she should settle down. She used to have a tantrum when she was a little girl and didn’t get what she wanted, but what she called her grandmother made me so mad that I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her around to the back of the house,” Opal said.
“We could hear some of what was said but not all of it,” Minilee explained. “I didn’t realize that Opal had such a temper. Poor Sally was weeping and apologizing to everyone. I was trying to smooth it all over. I decided to step up and start everyone singing the birthday song. I can’t carry a tune in a galvanized milk bucket, but I really tried to drown out the dressing down that Opal was giving Tatum.”
“That poor girl needs a lot of help, and I hope that some of what I had to tell her sank in deep enough that she goes to someone who will tell her she needs to grow up and change her attitude,” Opal said. “Now, that’s enough spilling the tea on our part. You didn’t tell me what you thought when you visited the estate, Libby. I was in a state of shock the first time me and Ernest went to the Christmas party at that place. But it wasn’t so intimidating the second time we were there.”
“It’s beautiful, but I figured out that the size of a place doesn’t matter. A tiny apartment can be a mansion if there’s happiness and love in it,” she answered.
Opal almost smiled. “I sure wish Tatum would learn the same lesson.”
“Maybe you should invite her to book club,” Libby said. “That and having y’all to talk to has sure helped me.”
Benny wondered if maybe he should go to their club meetings, too. Was he smothering Libby? Was that why she needed some breathing room? He thought about the questions and decided he didn’t want to spend time away from her, but if she needed space, then she should have it.
Half an hour later, Opal covered a yawn with her hand. “We’re all talked out now, and my energy is still zapped from the heat and all the visitin’ yesterday. Let’s go on home, Minilee, and let these kids get some rest. I bet they’re worn out, too, and they’ve got to get up early and go to work tomorrow.”
Minilee stood up and carried the plates and empty bottles to the trash can. “Y’all have a good night.”
“Thanks for supper,” Libby said.
“And the visit,” Benny added as he stood.
As if on cue, Fancy went to the closed apartment door and yipped. Benny let her in and then turned to face Libby. “I’m going to the trailer, darlin’. I’ll see you in the morning for our run.”
“Are you angry with me?” she asked.
“I don’t really know what I am,” he answered. “Maybe disappointed is more like it, but if you need some alone time and some space, I’ll give it to you. We are evidently in two different places in this relationship, but I’m a patient man.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He kissed her on the forehead and walked out the door.