Coming Home to Paradise (Sisters in Paradise #3)

Chapter 16

The ride from Nocona to Spanish Fort seemed to go far too fast for Rae. She would have liked more time with Gunner, even if they were in the midst of more than a dozen other people. But like the old saying that all good things must eventually come to an end, the caroling was over for another year. Tomorrow she might catch a glimpse or two of him at the Nocona Christmas Festival, but he would be on duty. She had volunteered to watch the girls for the day, but from the way her aunt was acting, she would probably have to share them with her.

Bernie stepped down off the trailer with two little girls right behind her “All that singing has built up my appetite. I’m glad that Mary Jane and Tertia put together some sandwiches and chips for us. Are you ladies hungry?”

Heather slipped her hand into Bernie’s. “I hope she’s got bologna. That’s my favorite.”

Daisy grabbed Bernie’s other hand. “That stuff is yukky. I like peanut butter and jelly better.”

“I believe she’s got an assortment so each person can make their own,” Bernie said and glanced over her shoulder at Rae and Gunner. “What are you smiling about, Rae?”

“You don’t have to ask, do you?” Rae answered.

“Sometimes first impressions are wrong.” Bernie narrowed her eyes and frowned. “I’ve got these two children. You can go help your mother.”

Bo tapped Rae on the shoulder. “The rest of us sisters can help Mama get things put out if you want to linger back for a few minutes.”

“Thank you.” Rae eased down on one of the porch rockers and motioned for Gunner to sit on the one close by. “When is the move taking place?”

“Sunday, after church,” he answered. “The furniture-store folks are delivering the bunk beds and setting them up tomorrow while we are at the Christmas Festival in Nocona. Remy, Shane, Noah, and Jake all offered to help me move the rest of the stuff. That way we can get it all in one trip. I know I’ve said it before, but this is one great family you’ve got.”

“Even Aunt Bernie?” she asked with half a giggle.

“Oh, yes, ma’am. This evening has been better than a trip to Disney World for Daisy and Heather.” Gunner reached across the distance and laid his hand on Rae’s. “And getting to spend time with you… Well, I’m not sure there are words.” He gently squeezed her hand.

“I agree, but…”

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “No but s tonight. Just and s. But means there is something that isn’t right. And means there’s more to come.”

“Okay, then…” Rae shivered, but it had nothing to do with the chill in the night air. His touch and even a little kiss on the hand jacked up her pulse several notches. “And we probably should go inside, or else Aunt Bernie will shed her queen costume and put on war paint.”

Bo opened the door and motioned for them. “Daddy is about to say grace. You’ll have to steal a few minutes later.”

Gunner held out his hand to help Rae up. When she was on her feet, he pulled her to his chest. “I don’t want to go home without kissing you. I’ve wanted to hold you in my arms all evening.”

“You did when I fell,” she whispered just before his lips found hers in a passionate kiss.

She tiptoed and wrapped her arms around his neck. The feeling was exactly like before in the house, so that time wasn’t just a one-and-done experience. There was true chemistry between her and Gunner, and no matter what Aunt Bernie said, she wanted—no, she needed—to see where it might lead.

***

Bo was up at the crack of dawn and spent an hour in the barn loading boxes of extra decorations into the bed of Joe Clay’s truck. She was glad that the weatherman had called for a cold but sunny day with no chance of rain or snow in the forecast. There was nothing sadder than soggy floats and a muddy park for the festival.

She carried the last box out of the barn and smiled when she noticed the big Christmas wreath wired to the truck’s front grill. That old song about a stepdad being the dad he didn’t have to be came to her mind. That was Joe Clay in a nutshell.

The sun was a sliver of orange on the eastern horizon when she made the turn out of the lane and headed south. She hadn’t driven a truck with a trailer hooked onto the back very often and had to remind herself to go slower than the speed limit allowed.

“Santa and his helper outfit, stuff for the trailer and to decorate the piano.” She counted off what she had loaded as she watched the sun finish making its morning show. “I probably brought too much, but I can always bring what we don’t use back to the barn. We’ll have to make a run to the store for candy, and I should stop at the Dairy Queen and pick up some bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits for breakfast.”

Your mama trained you well. Aunt Bernie’s voice was back in her head.

“Yes, she did,” Bo said out loud, “and she also trained me to listen to my heart and not to my aunt.”

When she got into town, she made a stop by the Dairy Queen and picked up half a dozen breakfast biscuits and two large cups of coffee. She passed the Family Dollar store a few blocks later and noticed that the inside lights were on and the OPEN sign was in the window. She eased into the parking lot and hurried inside. She picked up two big bags of individually wrapped candy canes and several smaller ones with a variety of candy to throw out for the children. As she was leaving, she remembered the posterboard for the signs and went back inside to buy two of those. When she reached the bar, Maverick was leaning on a porch post with the piano on a dolly right beside him.

“You are here!” he called out as she got out of the truck. “Shall we just sit all this on the porch?” he asked and picked up the first box from the bed of the truck.

“Leave that there for a little bit. I brought breakfast and bought candy for us to throw. Not having to go back into town will save some time. Let’s take ten minutes to eat before we get busy.” She handed the brown sack with the food in it to him. “I’ll bring the coffee. We’ve got almost five hours to get the piano loaded and the trailer decorated. We should be in good shape.”

Maverick sat down on the back end of the trailer, took a breakfast sandwich from the sack, and handed it to her. “Thanks for all this, Bo. I was in a panic about how to get the job done.”

“I would have been, too, but I know about what all we’ve got stored in the barn at the Paradise.” Bo removed the paper from the outside and bit into the biscuit, chewed and swallowed, and then took a sip of coffee. “Every year Mama waits until the stores put all their decorations on sale at ninety percent off and makes quite a haul. I told you some of this already when we put up all the holiday stuff for the bar. Anyway, there’s always extra in the barn. We’ll get the trailer all gussied up and have the prettiest float in the parade. If there’s one thing the seven sisters of Paradise are good at, it’s making everything gaudy and glittery for the holidays.”

“You’ve done all this on less than twenty-four-hour notice, and even remembered to bring breakfast?” Maverick sounded amazed.

“My mama raised me right.” She quoted what Bernie always said.

“She sure did,” Maverick agreed.

“I’ve got a question, though,” Bo said. “Old pianos, especially uprights, can get out of tune if you sneeze on them. Jerking that one around today is going to cause problems. Do you know someone around these parts that can tune one?”

“Me,” Maverick said. “I can tune it before we need to use it at the bar.”

“For real?” Bo could hear amazement in her own voice.

“Yep, for real. I was trained by the best.” He pulled a second biscuit from the sack. “Were you about to offer to do the job?”

Bo finished the last bite and took a sip of her coffee. “No. I can tune a guitar and a fiddle, but not a piano.”

“What else can you play?” Maverick asked between bites.

“A little bit of five-string banjo, but I’m not very good with it, and the mandolin fairly well. My strong points are the fiddle and piano,” she answered. “How about you?”

He stood up, went to the back of the truck, and unloaded all the boxes onto the porch. “Piano, banjo, and dobro with some degree of talent. Never could master the fiddle.”

“Why didn’t you go to Nashville?” she asked as she began to unpack the one that said GARLAND on the side.

“I wanted to see more than one place, work at more than one job, and see more people,” he answered. “Are we going to wrap battery-powered twinkle lights around the garland like we did in the bar?”

Bo nodded and opened the box of lights. “And maybe then we’ll add some Christmas greenery around the piano along with more lights. There’s ribbon and glitter for the signs. Did you come up with better wording for them?”

“I did not, but during slow times at the bar last night I came up with a couple of songs we could do. ‘Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree’ and ‘Christmas in Dixie.’ We could change the word Dixie to Texas. Maybe Santa can play, and the helper can…”

“Oh!” she gasped before he could finish. “If we’re going to play and sing about rockin’ around the tree, we need one on the float, and I didn’t think to bring one.”

“There’s a poor, pitiful-looking one in the storage room,” Maverick said. “I was planning on putting it on the stage for the holidays before you arrived with better stuff.”

Bo brought out long lengths of red garland and wrapped the battery-powered twinkle lights around them. “Let’s drag that tree out here and rope it down on the trailer. I’ll string some garland and lights around it and scatter a few bulbs here and there.”

Maverick rolled the dolly off the porch and onto the trailer. He positioned it at the back and then used straps to keep it steady. “I’ll depend on you to make it pretty while I go get the sorry excuse of a tree.”

“Good idea.” Bo remembered something her mother said years ago. She couldn’t quote it word for word, but the general idea was that if you really wanted to know someone, you could learn a lot about them by working with them a few days.

She had learned through the years that no truer words had ever been spoken. She had worked with jerks and at other times with some very nice people. Working with Maverick seemed to be on a different level. He even made a job like bartending or decorating an old flatbed trailer a lot of fun—and nobody could argue the fact that he was almighty easy on the eyes. Plus, when he looked at her with his piercing dark-green eyes, something ignited deep down in her body.

“Got it!” He raised the small tree above his head. “I told you it was ugly.”

“Shh…” Bo shushed him. “You’ll hurt its poor little feelings. We’ll turn it from a bag lady into Cinderella with the right decorations.”

Maverick laughed. “Sweetheart, if you can make this thing look good, you should go into interior design.”

“Never interested me, not even as a little girl. When we all got our own rooms at the Paradise, my sisters were all about what color to paint the walls. I just wanted lots of electrical plugs.”

“For your music stuff?” he asked.

“Yep,” she answered and kept working. She stole glances at him and imagined all those bulging muscles and ripped abs without a shirt and jacket covering them up.

“Do you go to the gym? You’ve hoisted the piano and all the boxes like none of them were anything but a feather pillow.”

“Nope,” he answered as he set the tree in the middle of the trailer and roped it down. “My strength didn’t come from a gym, but from some hard ranchin’ work up in Montana in one of my jobs before I came down here. Hey, I’ve got a few hours after the parade is over. Can I buy you a hot dog or something from one of the vendors when it’s all done with?”

“Sure, as long as we can come back here and change out of our costumes before we go to the festival.” She didn’t trust herself to look right at him again—not until she got control of the pictures flashing through her mind. “If we don’t, you’ll get swarmed by kids.”

“That sounds like a plan,” he said. “The floats are supposed to be left in the park for everyone to look at, but we can unhook the truck without a problem.”

“Mama and Daddy are driving down here in my SUV. They’ll take the truck and trailer home after the winners are announced, and I’ll have a vehicle to drive home whenever I get ready to go,” she said.

“What do we win?” Maverick asked.

“Our picture in the newspaper,” Bo answered. “According to Gunner’s girls, that’s all it takes to be famous.”

Maverick chuckled again. “See there. You go all the way to Nashville to get famous, and if we win, you’ll get the title right here in Nocona, Texas.”

“And you will be my band,” she joked. “What shall we call ourselves?”

“Whiskey Bent Band,” he suggested. “That’s where we first met and had our first concert. Then today will be our first tour.”

“I like it!” Bo agreed. “For our next concert, I’ll bring my fiddle, and you should bring your banjo.”

Maverick stopped tacking garland and lights around the edge of the trailer. He straightened his back and rolled the kinks out of his neck. “In all seriousness, what would you like to do with the rest of your life?”

“I have a job working for my aunt, but it’s not what I want to do forever,” she answered. “I’m not sure what I would do if I had the opportunity to choose, but I would still love to do something with music. Not much chance of that in Montague County, Texas, though. I can play for the church for free, or help with the Christmas program, or even ride on a float and sing, but…” She shrugged. “How about you?”

“I’ve given it a lot of thought, but I still don’t know for sure,” Maverick answered and abruptly changed the subject. “All done. Even that poor tree looks awesome, but the floor of the trailer looks bare.”

Bo was a little disappointed in his answer. Aunt Bernie was probably right, but a little fling wouldn’t be such a bad thing. If she fell in love with him along the way, she could very well just fall out of love with him when he moved on to the next job. She and Rae had had chicken pox when they were little girls, and even with all the whining and figuring that they would be ugly for the rest of their lives, they had survived. If Bo could live through that ordeal and then seeing her Nashville dream shattered, she could live through anything, including a broken heart.

“I can fix that,” she finally said, and tore into a box marked SNOW. “We will have a white Christmas on our float. Help me cover the bed of the trailer with this quilt batting and then I’ll sprinkle glitter on it to give it some pizzazz. Mama has used it on the tables at the Paradise party, and she bought too much.”

They finished that job with only thirty minutes to spare. Bo grabbed the costumes from the back seat of the truck, kicked the empty boxes into the bar, and made a beeline for the bathroom.

“Use the bar to change,” Maverick said as he headed back to his apartment. “You’ll have more room. Just leave what you are wearing now on one of the tables.”

She was outside snapping pictures of the trailer when Maverick came out in the Santa outfit with a big belly and a fake beard. He stopped on the porch and said, “Sweet Jesus, woman! You look like something that men only dream about.”

“Well, darlin’,” she drawled, “there ain’t many women in the world who wouldn’t want to sit on your lap.”

Maverick wiggled his eyebrows. “How about my helper today? Would she sit on my lap and tell me what she wants for Christmas?”

“I don’t date my boss,” she teased.

“Then let it be known that I will never hire you,” Maverick flirted.

***

They reached the Dairy Queen, where all the floats, the high school band, the local fire engine, and even a dozen or more horses from a riding club were milling around. A woman who carried herself like she was in charge of when the world ended marched around with a clipboard in her hands. She approached Bo and Maverick with a frown and ran a long, perfectly manicured purple fingernail down a list on a single sheet of paper.

“Here comes trouble,” Bo whispered.

“Why do you say that?” Maverick asked.

“Just wait and see,” Bo said and then smiled. “Good morning, Miz Helen.”

“I see you are the Whiskey Bent Bar float. I can’t believe Mary Jane is letting one of her girls ride on a bar float or…” She glared at the skimpy Santa helper costume Bo wore with a look that said she’d rather be chasing a skunk through fresh cow patties than have to see something so disgraceful. “Or wearing something that looks like that.”

“Yes, Helen, that is the bar’s float,” Mary Jane yelled as she crossed the parking lot. “And dar…lin’…” She dragged out the last word. “Seems like I remember you wearing skirts a lot skimpier than that when we were in high school, and what you had under them didn’t quite cover your butt. Now, let’s talk about the float that Joe Clay and I will drive for them.”

“Lower your voice,” Helen hissed.

Not many people were brave enough to cross Helen, but Mary Jane crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side. “Don’t put it at the end of the line in front of the fire truck bringing Santa to town or the music won’t be heard.”

Helen’s grimace came far short of being a smile. “They were entered at the last minute, so I have to do what I have to do.”

In a few long strides Joe Clay was right beside Mary Jane. “Hello, Helen. It’s been a long minute since I’ve seen you. I bet it’s been a while since you’ve seen our daughter, Bo. She is riding on the float and will be singing Christmas songs. And Santa is being played today by Maverick, the manager and bartender at Whiskey Bent. Remember when it was the Sugar Shack? We all had fake IDs and spent a lot of time there, didn’t we?”

“I’m not here to talk about the past,” Helen snapped. “The bar owner didn’t enter the parade until yesterday, so they cannot have preferential treatment. By rights, they should be the last float before the fire truck.”

“Yes, ma’am, but won’t that confuse all the little kids?” Maverick asked. “They will see me as Santa Claus on the float, and then they’ll see another Santa on the fire truck right behind me. Do you have grandchildren?”

“Yes, she does,” Mary Jane answered.

“We’ll be glad to fall in line wherever you think it best,” Bo said with a shrug, “and you can explain to your sweet little kiddos about how two Santas are at the festival.”

“But if we are near the front, then you can tell your grandkids a very different story,” Maverick added.

“One that says Santa brought in the parade and then rushed back to ride the fire truck, so that he could usher in the parade and then end it,” Joe Clay suggested.

“But it’s your call.” Bo tried to conjure up her most innocent expression. “Just tell us where to be, and we will do your bidding.”

A little boy ran across the parking lot, wrapped his arms around Maverick, and looked up at Helen. “He’s here, Granny. He’s really here.”

“Yes, he is and he’s waiting to get on the fire engine.” Helen’s expression said that she was fabricating a story to tell the child. “You go let your mama help put your costume on for our church float.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said and ran toward a float with a sign on the side that read JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON.

Helen tapped her foot on the gravel parking lot and set her mouth in a firm line. Then she made some adjustments to the list and said, “The police chief will lead the parade like always. Then you will be right behind him. I’d planned to put my church float right behind him to remind people of the real reason for Christmas.” She sucked in a lungful of cold air and a whoosh that left a puff in the cold air.

“Why, Helen!” Joe Clay chuckled. “I had no idea that you had started smoking again. Seems like I remember you having quite a habit when we were in high school.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “And it wasn’t always just cigarettes.”

Biting back laughter wasn’t easy for Bo, but she managed. Everyone in all of north Texas knew that Helen was the head honcho of the Chamber of Commerce in Nocona. But Bo had no idea that she had gone to school with her mama and daddy. The woman looked twenty years older than either of her parents.

“Shhh…” Helen growled out the shushing noise. “That was a long time ago.” She went back to marking out numbers and readjusting. “I can’t put my float behind yours. That just wouldn’t be right, so I’ll put the Dairy Queen after you, then mine, and the high school band after that. Tell Dave that he better call me before the last minute if he wants to enter the parade next year.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Maverick nodded and tipped the ball of his Santa had toward her. “I will do that.”

Bo heard the door of a vehicle slam and saw Gunner coming across the parking lot. “Do you have the lineup all ready? It’s a little past showtime.”

“It’s done,” Helen said, “and I’ll be staying right here and telling each float or group when to go next.”

Mary Jane looped her arm into Bo’s, led her away, and said, “That was fun.”

“Oh, really? Maybe you better tell me more about the Sugar Shack and what went on there,” Bo said.

“That is classified,” Mary Jane declared and headed over to where Joe Clay held the truck door open for her.

“We’ll unhook the trailer at the park and bring y’all back here to get Bo’s vehicle,” Joe Clay said as he came around the trailer. “Knock ’em dead, baby girl.”

“Thanks, Daddy,” Bo said with grin. “Drive slow. We don’t want the piano to fall off and splinter into a thousand pieces.”

Joe Clay gave her a thumbs-up and slid under the steering wheel. Gunner pulled out onto the street and turned the lights on, but he must have seen the piano because he didn’t use the sirens. Bo caught sight of Helen’s expression and giggled. Before, the police chief always led the parade, and always with the sirens blasting. Bo was sure that was why Helen had agreed to give the Whiskey Bent float the place she did, and now she was angry that her ugly plan didn’t work.

“What’s so funny?” Maverick asked as he sat down on the piano bench and began to play.

“I’ll explain later,” Bo answered.

She held the microphone in her left hand and got her footing on the moving trailer. She checked for her family in the crowds that had come out to enjoy the day. She found them, all in a bunch, in front of the flower shop. Aunt Bernie was sitting on a park bench with a little dark-haired girl on either side of her. They made quite the picture with Bernie wearing red-and-green-plaid bell-bottom pants that came from her hippie days and a denim duster that looked like something from an old western movie. Daisy’s bright-red jacket and Heather’s green one matched the colors in Bernie’s pants.

“Miz Bo is Santa’s helper!” Daisy squealed and pointed.

“And there’s Santa Claus,” Heather yelled over the applause. “I didn’t know he played the piano.”

There are a lot of things about Maverick that none of you know , Bo thought as she finished up that song, and Maverick played the opening notes of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.”

Without missing a beat, Bo waved and then threw handfuls of candy in their direction. Apparently, Bernie had been teaching them the queen’s wave because they each executed one perfectly.

Five songs later they reached the park, and Bo’s moment of stardom was over, but it didn’t matter. Her family had all been there to see her performance, which was something that had never happened in Nashville.

Joe Clay got out of the truck to help Maverick unhitch the trailer. “Y’all were really good. Bo, you must be freezing. Go on and get in the warm truck with your mother.”

“I’m not even going to argue with you,” Bo said.

Maverick hopped off the trailer and picked up Bo by the waist, swung her around a couple of times, and then set her on the ground. “That was so much fun. Think they would want us to play and sing some more for the festival? The piano is already here, and there’s plenty of room for the two of us on the bench.”

“Yes!” Mary Jane stuck her head out the window and raised her voice.

“I guess the real queen has spoken,” Bo said and jogged around the trailer. She hadn’t even realized how cold she was until she started to shiver.

Mary Jane tossed a fluffy throw over the front seat. “You need this more than I do. I had thought I might sit on the sidelines with the family, but changed my mind when it turned off so cold. But at least the sun is out, and it’s not raining. Y’all were so good. I’m proud of you both.”

Bo wrapped the throw around her body. “Thank you, Mama.”

“You are very welcome. I had no idea that Maverick could play the piano like that. Y’all should entertain at the Paradise Christmas party,” Mary Jane said.

“I’ll ask him if he can get off work that night, but there are conditions. You have to tell me a Sugar Shack story,” Bo teased.

“Never going to happen,” Mary Jane told her. “I also had no idea that you were going to wear that outfit today. Your legs have to be freezing.”

“They are now, but I was so happy when I was performing that I didn’t notice. When do they announce the winners?”

“As soon as they tally up the scores, so don’t tarry too long when y’all are getting changed,” Mary Jane answered.

Maverick barely made it into the back seat when the next float pulled up. “That was a close call,” he said.

“Saved by a split second.” Joe Clay chuckled. “Another minute and those little kids riding on that float would have swarmed you.”

Maverick pulled off his fake beard and wire-rimmed glasses. “There can only be one ‘real’ Santa.”

Bo stole a long sideways glance at Maverick. Santa was gone, replaced by a sexy bartender. She blamed her thoughts on the adrenaline high from performing, even if it was just on the back of a Christmas float.