Chapter Twenty
Some folks can’t define the very moment that their life changed. To those people, the exact second of clarity, when they knew beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt what they needed to do, didn’t come in a flash, but it crept in slowly. For me, it was the total opposite.
I was sitting on a church pew for the first time in over twenty years.
Scarlett was to my left, with Grady beside her.
Jackson held my hand to my right. The little black dress I wore with a dark green cardigan was too warm, but the heat flooding my body had more to do with his touch than the temperature of the building.
A young couple with kids arrived and sat right in front of us.
The mother led the way like a mama duck with four little ducklings behind her, only this was four little blond-haired girls, and then the father took his place at the end next to the aisle.
The youngest of the children stood up, put her hands on the back of the pew, and smiled at me.
In that very instant, I knew that the Tumbleweed and Dell City was my forever home.
What was more, I wanted a chance to give Jackson a permanent place in my heart, and I wanted kids—lots of them.
I might not have had the background to know how to raise children, but I would give them the same kind of love that my mother gave me.
That should be enough to start, and the rest could be learned along the way.
The preacher seemed to appear out of nowhere, but then, I hadn’t been paying attention to anything except that adorable little girl and my own revelation.
“I’m glad that the roads are finally open enough that we can have services,” he said.
“Amen!” someone said from the back.
“Hallelujah!” another person shouted.
I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to say something or not. Jackson gave my hand a gentle squeeze and smiled. If he could read my thoughts, then my poker-playing days must have come to an end.
“Yes, amen and hallelujah!” the preacher said.
“While you are opening your hymn books to page 189, I’d like to take a moment to welcome our newcomers,” he said.
“We would be happy to have you make our little church your spiritual home. We are a right friendly and informal bunch who will gladly make you a part of our family. Now, let’s sing loud enough that the angels in heaven can hear our praise. ”
There was that word again—family. This time it didn’t scare me like before.
Jackson reached for a hymnal from the pocket on the back of the pew in front of us. Scarlett winked when he shared the book with me.
“What?” I whispered.
“I’ll tell you later,” she answered in a low voice.
I should have paid more attention to the sermon, but my mind drifted back to that moment of clarity.
I didn’t want to change it, and I did not have any second thoughts.
I would have loved to have a real relationship with Jackson, and children with him someday—a year came to mind when I thought of how long Scarlett had been dating Grady.
The preacher jerked me back to the present when he said we would close the services with a moment of prayer.
I could hardly believe that thirty minutes had passed so quickly, or that I hadn’t heard a word of the sermon.
Yet sitting there in that small church had changed my whole perspective on life, and I truly felt at peace.
“Have I paid my dues?” I whispered to Scarlett.
“Did you listen to the message?” she asked.
“I got a message loud and clear, but I’m not sure who it was from,” I answered.
“Then you get to break bread with the Mendoza family.” She grinned when she stood up. “And just so you know, when you share a hymn book with a guy, that means he’s off-limits to the other women. Some floozies might make a play for him, but you faced off with his mama, so you can take care of them.”
“Sometimes I feel like a sixteen-year-old who is just learning the ropes,” I whispered.
“If I had lived in your world, I would, too,” she said. “Oh, and we usually leave our vehicles here and walk to the Mendoza home. It’s only a block away, and there’s very little parking.”
We shook hands with the preacher, and then Jackson slipped an arm around my waist. When we were outside, he removed his arm and laced his gloved hands with mine.
Scarlett and Grady walked beside us. A dozen people were ahead of us, including the couple with the four little girls, who ran and slid when they found an icy patch.
Several more folks trailed along behind us.
“Do you think we are all headed to the same place?” I asked.
“Yes, and this isn’t all of us,” Scarlett answered. “Rosie’s Mass is over, so I’m sure she’s already there, along with the relatives and friends that go to the Catholic church. She brought along that extra peach cobbler that we had left over from the café today.”
“Mama always makes enough tamales and enchiladas to feed an army for Sunday supper, and all the relatives bring food of some kind,” Grady added.
“Do you do this for Sunday dinner, too?” I asked.
“No, that’s just for the immediate family,” he answered.
One look at the house told me that all those people would never fit into the place.
I was hungry enough that I would have claimed a couple of square feet on the floor and held my plate on my lap.
But when we arrived, everyone went through the living room and kitchen and into the garage, where several tables lined the walls, and two over to my right were covered with food.
“We always have Sunday supper out here. After supper, the older folks gather in the living room to talk about old times or fall asleep for a power nap. The young ones get out board games. And those in between take their kids home for a few hours,” Scarlett explained and motioned for us to follow her.
“Supper is a time of visiting with friends and family, and after cleanup, everyone goes home. Y’all come on and I’ll introduce you to some folks. ”
“I feel like I did when the first busload came into the Tumbleweed,” I whispered to Jackson when I looked over the room full of people.
“A little bewildered?” he asked.
“Yep, and I didn’t even have to remember all their names.”
“Hey, Jackson!” a short guy with graying hair yelled from the back of the room. “I’m sure glad that we got back to work yesterday. I was getting a bad case of cabin fever.”
“I think we all were,” Jackson said.
“How many of these folks work for you?” I asked.
“A lot—but they work for the company, not me,” he answered.
Scarlett made us acquainted with Grady’s folks, his sisters, and a few other people, then she grabbed my hand and led me over to the food tables. “Jackson, you can go talk shop with the guys. Carla is going to help me and a couple of other women serve tonight.”
For a brief moment, I thought about the church where Rosie grew up, but then I saw a man throw a diaper bag over his shoulder and escort his small son to the restroom at the back of the garage.
Rosie wouldn’t let Scarlett worship in a place like that, I assured myself.
Jackson let go of my hand and kissed me on the forehead. “Save me a little bit of Rosie’s cobbler.”
“I’ll do my best,” I promised, and turned to Scarlett. “You said this was a buffet. Don’t folks serve themselves?”
“Yes, but sometimes the older folks and the children need help taking their plates to the table, and if someone spills something, we are on duty. It’s a good time to meet folks,” she explained, and introduced Cynthia and Lola, our other two helpers.
“Pleased to meet you,” they said in unison.
“My pleasure,” I said. “I’m new to this, so y’all might have to guide me.”
“You were sitting behind me in church,” Cynthia said. “I’m married to one of the Mendoza cousins.”
“And I’m married to another one,” Lola said. “We are so glad that the Armstrong Company came to our area. My husband had been driving all the way to El Paso for his job. It’s nice to have him home an hour earlier in the evenings, and the pay is double.”
“That’s great.” I could almost feel roots growing right down through my feet, into the garage floor, and on into the ground.
“Hey!” Nancy said as she and Ada Lou came into the room. “We’re not too late, are we?”
Scarlett shook her head and took a bowl from each of them. She set the one with banana pudding on the dessert table and the one with salad with the side dishes. She tapped on one of the casserole dishes with a spoon, and the whole place went silent.
Mama Mendoza stood up from her place beside Rosie and said, “Tonight, Rosie will say the blessing, and then all y’all can line up and fix your plates.”
Rosie pushed back her chair and bowed her head as she got to her feet. “Father, thank you for this food, for the hands that prepared it, and for the fellowship we will enjoy. Amen.”
I heard one of the little blond-haired girls say, “I like it when Miz Rosie prays. She don’t talk a long time.”
“Amen,” I whispered under my breath.
“Are most of these people related to the Mendozas?” I asked Scarlett.
“Yes, we are, in some form or another. That tall redhead over there is my cousin’s wife, and the lady beside her is her mother. They aren’t blood kin, but they are what we call shirttail kin,” Lola answered.
As people came through the line, they told me their names, but there was no way I would remember all of them. Still, the whole scene reinforced my decision to give up poker and stay in the area. I wanted a family that was not only related by DNA, but some of those shirttail folks, too.
Frank marked you after all. The voice that I didn’t like was in my head.
Mama, where are you? I’d think that you would be happy that I’m going to settle down. So why don’t you tell me how happy you are rather than letting a different voice tell me that I’m like Frank and his ragtag family.
No answers floated down from the rafters in the garage, so I simply kept smiling and talking to folks as they loaded up their plates.
Jackson and Grady had been roped into helping serve drinks, so they were the last two in line.
When they finished getting their food, Scarlett and I were done with our job, and we joined them at a nearby table.
“This is a really nice way to end the weekend,” Jackson said.
“Good food. Good friends. Good family,” Grady said. “We’re a pretty tight-knit group here in Dell City.”
“Actually, from here all the way to the Tumbleweed, since y’all took us in,” Scarlett said.
“Anyone that has a Dell City address is counted in with us,” Grady replied.
I had never been included in a town before, and I liked the warm feeling of acceptance that washed over me.
Yes, I had made the right decision, and it hadn’t taken me all the way to July 4 to do so.
I wasn’t ready to stand on the top of my trailer and announce it to the world.
Not yet, anyway. I wanted to keep it close to my heart for a while and enjoy the peace all to myself.
Grady stood up and extended a hand to Scarlett. She took it and together they walked to the center of the room. Mama Mendoza shushed the folks around her and pointed. Soon the whole room was quieter than the church when the preacher gave his sermon that evening.
Scarlett shot a smile and a wink at me from across the room. My thoughts went in several different directions. Was Grady about to propose? Were they announcing that she was pregnant?
“Since everyone is here, we have an announcement to make,” Grady said.
“Scarlett has moved in with me, and just this morning she finally said yes when I proposed for the twenty-fifth time. We would like to invite all y’all to attend our wedding in two weeks.
The ceremony and the reception will be held at our church. ”
The applause was probably heard all the way to El Paso, and everyone rushed to congratulate them.
“What do you think about that?” Ada Lou whispered in my ear.
I whipped around to find her right there in person instead of just as a voice in my head. “I am happy for her.”
“Aren’t you going to miss her at the café?” she asked.
“When she moved in with Grady just yesterday, she promised that she would continue to work at the Tumbleweed.”
“What about when she has a baby or babies?” she asked.
“Then we’re turning half of the storage room into a nursery and hiring a nanny. You want to apply for the job?”
“I just might.”
Her answer shocked me so badly that I didn’t even have a comeback for several seconds. Finally, I found my voice and said, “Are you serious?”
“Sure, I am. Rosie told me y’all have a new girl coming tomorrow morning. When she gets trained, you could give Scarlett the weekends free. Then I’d only have to work five days a week. If I can’t handle it, I’ll talk Nancy into helping me,” Ada Lou answered.
“You’ve already given this some thought, haven’t you.”
“Yes, I have,” she said, then went up to hug the couple.
Jackson leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “So, you’re putting in a nursery? I’d thought we would hire a live-in nanny.”
“For Scarlett’s kids?” I asked, even though I knew what he was talking about.
He stood and held out a hand. “The nanny I had it mind would be for Leroy Jethro and Barney Huckleberry. Those are strange names for a cute little girl like the one that kept turning around in front of us during church services, but I bet there won’t be another girl in her kindergarten class named that. ”
“It would take a lifetime to get ahead of you,” I said on the way to stand in line to congratulate Grady and Scarlett.
“But just think about how much fun it would be,” he chuckled.