Coming Home to Paradise (Sisters in Paradise #3)

Chapter 19

Endora awoke to the sound of thunder and couldn’t go back to sleep, so she padded quietly over to Luna’s old bedroom and laid her sister’s wedding dress on the bed. Luna had said when she came out of the dressing room that she had found her dream dress. Endora had been more than a little jealous because it was the exact style she had looked at back when she was engaged to her ex-fiancé. Another clap of thunder startled her. Was nature itself telling her that it would be bad luck to start a marriage in a dress that she had wanted when she was in love with a different man?

“This is what had brought on the antsy feeling, isn’t it?” She heard the front door open and then close, and hurriedly hung the dress back in the closet. She slipped out into the hallway and gasped when she saw Bo tiptoeing up the stairs.

“Are you just now coming home?” she asked.

“I am,” Bo answered. “What are you doing up this early?”

“Thunder woke me,” Endora answered. “My mind wouldn’t shut down, so I got up and sneaked a peek at Luna’s wedding dress. I can’t wear it, and I can’t carry her bouquet. I’m getting married in less than two weeks. What am I going to do?”

“They sell dresses every day.” Bo looped her arm into Endora’s. “Let’s put on a pot of coffee and talk.”

“Let’s have milk and cookies instead. The smell of coffee will wake up everyone in the house. We can take it to the back porch. There’s a storm coming, and I just hope and pray that what’s in the sky isn’t an omen of an even bigger tempest in the family.”

“I agree,” Bo said with a nod.

While Bo filled two tall glasses with milk, Endora grabbed a package of chocolate chip cookies from the pantry, and they eased out the back door onto the screened-in porch. Bo set a glass of milk on each of the small tables at the end of the swing.

Endora tossed a soft throw over at her sister, wrapped a second one around her shoulders, and sat down on the end of the swing. “We can watch the sun come up if this bluster goes around us. Am I crazy? There’s a perfectly good dress I can wear, and I love it, but…”

“Spit it out,” Bo said.

“It’s the same style I looked at when I was engaged to Kevin,” Endora said. “I might be starting off my marriage on a bad sign. I’ve felt like there was a storm coming for days now, and wearing that dress just might be…”

Bo pulled her phone from her skirt pocket. “Let’s go shopping. We can order a dress, have it sent here in my name, and no one will put the pieces together. How about white velvet since you’re getting married during the holidays?”

Even though it was pouring down rain and lightning was putting on a show, Endora felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and, more importantly, from her heart. “Yes! I love that idea, and we could make my bouquet from the extra poinsettias in the barn. I saw some gold ones out there that Mama picked up last year.”

Bo handed the phone to Endora. “This site promises to deliver in two days. If you pick out something that needs altering, I’ll take care of it.”

“Just like that!” Endora snapped her fingers.

“Thank goodness for the internet,” Bo said.

“And for a sister who is a seamstress.” Endora pointed at a long sheath-style dress with a princess neckline and long sleeves. “I really like this one, but the ball gown is beautiful too. What do you think?”

“It’s your decision, but as tiny as you are, all that velvet in the full skirt will be really heavy,” Bo answered.

“Then the first one is what I want, and just like that, my problem is solved. I’m so glad that I caught you sneaking in after spending the night with Maverick,” Endora said.

Bo ordered the dress, laid the phone on the table, and took a drink of her milk. “Problem solved. Dress ordered. Bouquet can be made sometime this week. Do you have shoes? And, Endora, last night was a one-time thing.”

“Thank you, yes, I have shoes, and I thought he might be the one,” Endora said. “You were so cute together on the float and when you entertained at the festival.”

“I need to put down roots. He has to keep his wings to fly.”

“Did you tell him that?” Endora asked.

“Maybe not in those words, but I let him know that last night wouldn’t happen again,” Bo answered.

“Does it hurt?” Endora asked.

“Like hell,” Bo admitted.

Endora opened the package of cookies and handed one to her sister. “Anytime you want to talk, I’m here for you.”

Bo took the cookie with one hand and wiped away a single tear with her free hand. “Will you remind me in my weaker moments that I can’t have both roots and wings?”

Endora laid a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I promise I will.”

***

Rae reminded herself at the close of the day on Tuesday that the kids were getting antsy because the holidays were right around the corner, but it didn’t help the tension in her neck and shoulders. Coloring sheets hung on the walls and windows of her classroom—Santa Claus, ornaments, Christmas trees—all done mostly in the abstract way that kids from four to six could produce. Their parents would collect the pictures on Friday of the next week after the little Christmas program in the auditorium, and hopefully take them home to proudly hang on their refrigerators. Then she would have two weeks at home, and a new semester would begin.

She loved her job, but when that day was done, she was more than glad to walk her students out to the front of the school. Some got on buses. Some had parents waiting to whisk them away in vehicles. When they were all gone, she just wanted to prop up her feet and have a good cold beer, but that wasn’t possible when two little girls were waiting in her classroom.

When she opened the front doors, she could hear yelling coming from her room all the way down the hallway. She did a fast walk and hoped she would get there before the twins started throwing punches. She was out of breath when she arrived to find Daisy and Heather squared off with their noses just inches apart, hands clenched in fists and expressions that dared the other one to make the first move.

“Whoa!” Rae said from the doorway. “Take a step back and then take a long breath.”

The girls whipped around to focus their anger toward her.

Rae pointed to a desk in the front row. “Daisy, you take a seat right there, and Heather, you sit on the one on the other end of the row. We’ll take a moment to cool down, and then we’ll talk about whatever it is that has you both riled up.”

Heather let out a whoosh of air so hard that she snorted. “Daisy says that Millie can’t be my friend because she is her friend.”

“She can have Jenny,” Daisy snapped. “I don’t like her.”

Rae held up a palm and sat down behind her desk. “I said we are going to be very quiet for a little bit, and then we’ll talk.”

Too bad she didn’t have some of that virtual magic dust she had told Gunner about a couple of days before. Yesterday had gone so well that Rae had patted herself on the back at the end of the day. She and the girls had gone to the house, and she had helped them with their homework. Then she sent them out to the front yard to play while she rustled up enough ingredients to make a chicken enchilada casserole for supper. Gunner had come in weary to the bone from all the weekend festivities and the move and given her a long passionate and lingering kiss.

“I appreciate this so much, Rae,” he had said.

“I’m selfish,” she had told him. “I wanted to see your face when the girls told you all about their first day at the new school.”

“No problems?” he’d asked as he washed up at the kitchen sink.

She shook the memory from her head and said, “Daisy, why don’t you like Jenny?”

“Because she’s saying bad things to Millie because her boyfriend quit her to be Millie’s boyfriend,” Daisy said. “And Heather played with Jenny at recess, so I’m mad at her. I told her not to play with Jenny, and Heather is my sister, so she’s supposed to listen to me.”

Holy smokin’ hell! Rae thought. These were first graders. They were not supposed to be thinking about boyfriends at this age.

“Well.” Heather crossed her arms over her chest. “Johnny only likes Millie because she’s rich and brings him candy every day.”

This was beginning to sound like some of the domestic disputes that Rae and her partner had to break up during her time on the police force—and this was seven-year-old little girls, not grown adults fighting over a guy that wasn’t worth a grain of wet salt.

“Do either of you have a boyfriend?” Rae asked.

“Yuck!” Heather’s nose wrinkled in a snarl. “Boys are stinky.”

“They are not,” Daisy countered.

Heather threw a dose of stink eye across the room. “You should have to sit beside Johnny after recess. He smells like a wet dog. I don’t know why Jenny or Millie wants to hold his old sweaty hand on the bus.”

“Do you have a boyfriend, Daisy?” Rae asked.

Daisy shook her head.

“I’m glad,” Rae said.

“Why?” Heather asked. “Don’t girls grow up to have boyfriends so they can have babies?”

Rae had never appreciated her mother more than she did at that moment. “ Grow up is the key term,” she said in the most authoritative voice she could muster. “You should enjoy being little girls because once you are grown-ups, you can’t go back and be a little kid anymore. You’ll have all kinds of responsibilities, like working all day and paying bills and mowing the lawn and cooking and doing the laundry.”

“Then I don’t want a boyfriend,” Daisy declared. “I don’t like to do the dishes, and I hate dusting.”

“Me neither,” Heather said. “Jenny and Millie are both crazy if that’s what having a boyfriend means.”

“What Millie and Jenny do is their business, and if you can’t be friends with both of them, then don’t be friends with either,” Rae suggested. “Friends will come and go in your lifetime, but you’ll always have your sister. So, don’t let anyone come between you. Are y’all ready to go home now?”

“Yes, but I’m going to my room,” Heather said. “I’m not over being mad at Daisy.”

“That’s fine,” Rae said. “You can love someone and still be mad at them for a little while. Do either of you have homework?”

“No,” Daisy answered. “Are you going to make supper again tonight? We liked it when we were all around the table and got to talk about our day.”

“I can, but we don’t bring arguments or fights to the supper table,” Rae said as she ushered them both out of her classroom and locked the door behind them.

***

On Wednesday morning, Aunt Bernie actually came up to the office that Bo had set up in one of the vacant bedrooms and sat down in the rocking chair in the corner. “Those steps get steeper every time I climb them,” she moaned in between bouts of catching her breath. “December is already nearly half-gone, and the party is just two days away. Gunner and the twins are planning to be here if he doesn’t get called out for an emergency. But that’s not why I punished my old knees by climbing those stairs.”

“You better be careful, or you might not be up for line dancing at the party on Friday night,” Bo teased and hoped that her aunt didn’t ask anything about Maverick. “Do you want to talk about the party, or do you have some special instructions for the advice column?”

“No, and yes,” Bernie said. “I saw how happy you were when you were singing on the float and then later at the festival. I’m holding you back, and I love you too much to do that. Vera has offered to help me with the advice column, so you are hereby as of this minute relieved of your job. Here is your severance package. I have asked Noah about renting the old store so that you can put in a place to give music lessons. He’s agreeable if that’s what you want to do. My passion was owning and running a bar, and I don’t regret a minute of doing just that until my old knees got too bad to stand on my legs all that time every day. You need to find and follow your passion, and I know music is what you love.”

Bo was both relieved and sad at the same time. “Aunt Bernie, that’s a lovely idea, but who is going to come all the way to Spanish Fort to take piano, mandolin, or fiddle lessons?”

“With a little advertising and promotion, you might just be surprised,” Bernie said. “Now, for the rest of this day, I want you to forward all the files over to Vera. I bought her a new laptop, and she’s eager to get started. Besides, I can drive over to her house every morning, and we can take care of the advice column. Noah says you can pick up the keys anytime at the café. Go on down to the store building and see what you think. That little severance check should be enough to remodel it into a fine place.”

She stood up and headed out of the room. “When you make your first million, put in one of those lift chairs so your mama and daddy won’t have to climb up here when they have a houseful of grandbabies.”

Bo hopped up from her desk and hugged Bernie. “I don’t know what to say other than thank you.”

“Thank you is good enough, but if you really want to put the icing on the cake, then stay away from Maverick unless he is willing to go into the music business with you right here in Spanish Fort. And honey, who would have thought people would drive all the way up here to eat at Tertia and Noah’s café or get wine from Jake and Ophelia? Or for that matter, to stop in at Luna and Shane’s little store for bait and picnic supplies? Spanish Fort is growing, and you can get in on the ground floor with your own business.”

Bo gasped when she saw the check in the envelope. It wouldn’t compare to Maverick’s trust fund, but it was beyond enough to put some paint on walls and shelves to hold music books. She couldn’t believe that Aunt Bernie had brought her the perfect idea that would help her to put down roots while she did something she truly loved.

She grabbed her phone from the desk and called Maverick. His voice sounded groggy when he said, “Hello.”

“Did I wake you? I’m sorry. Go back to sleep,” she said.

“No, I’m awake now. Have you changed your mind about going to Jackson Hole with me?” Maverick asked.

“No,” she answered. “So, are you really going?”

“I told Dave to find another manager. I’m looking forward to getting back into playing the piano even if it is part-time,” Maverick answered. “I wish you’d come with me. Christmas in that part of the country is beautiful. We could be good together, Bo.”

“Go out to the jukebox and play that old song ‘My Elusive Dreams.’ I’m afraid that following a nomad life would someday bring me nothing but regrets.”

“I don’t have to play the song, Bo. I’ve sung it in two-bit honky-tonks up in southern Oklahoma before,” he said.

Bo understood the draw of following a dream to a place, but when would it end? When he was old and gray and too broken down to enjoy life anymore?

He is free to make his own choices, the voice in her head whispered. He would soon be the one with regrets if he tried to change to suit her.

“I understand,” she said, “but I called you to see if you had time to drive up here and see where my next dream is taking me. I’d like to see what you think of what I have in mind.”

“Anytime, darlin’. I’ll be there in half an hour,” he answered. “May I ask if this idea came to you in a dream?”

“Actually, Aunt Bernie came up with it, and it came in the form of a pink slip. See you in a little while. I’ll be the one in the sweatshirt with Frosty the Snowman on the front, and I’ll be waiting on the front porch,” she said and ended the call.

She finished backing up all the files for Bernie’s advice column and then sent them to Vera. A sense of relief and peace washed over her as she opened the balcony door and walked outside. She thought of the storm Endora mentioned when she looked up at the heavy gray skies that morning.

As if on cue, her sister came out of her room and stood beside her. “There’s something in the air, like maybe snow,” Endora said. “I hope that’s what it is, and not this antsy feeling that the other shoe is about to drop.”

“Everything is fine. You’ve got wedding jitters,” Bo assured her. “Aunt Bernie fired me this morning. That could be the other shoe, but behind every dark cloud is a silver lining. She gave me some wonderful advice along with my pink slip and generous severance pay.”

Endora rushed over to give Bo a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s a blessing in disguise. My new job will take a while to get going, but I’m at peace with the idea. I’m going to rent the old store building from Noah and start giving music lessons.”

Endora took a step back. “That is the perfect job for you, but I still see sadness in your eyes.”

“Maverick is taking a job in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He asked me to go with him. He’ll be bartending some of the time and playing the piano when he’s not doing that. I would wear an Old West type of costume and be a barmaid or else singing,” Bo said with a sigh. “There is chemistry between us that I’ve never known before, and I would really enjoy that job.”

“But?” Endora asked.

Bo focused on the cattle on Remy and Ursula’s side of the barbed-wire fence. “But what happens when he gets antsy and wants to try something else? Will he ever settle down, or will I be constantly on the move? Mama told each of us to listen to our heart when we finished school and were ready to get away from Spanish Fort.”

“And we did,” Endora said with a nod. “Seems like sometimes our heart changes its mind, though, because look where we all are right now. You and Rae are the last of us to get your wandering days finished and come on home.”

Bo turned toward Endora and forced a smile. “Who would have ever thought that an old brothel in a tiny little community could have such an impact on all of us?”

“Wouldn’t you love to know what happened to the madam, Miz Raven, and those ladies of the night when the railroad went in? Mama wrote historical novels about the women, but that was when they lived here. Where did they go when the madam sent them away, and what did they do with the rest of their lives?” Endora wondered out loud.

“Maybe one of them married a preacher,” Bo teased.

“And one taught piano lessons to little girls in another town,” Endora said with half a giggle, and then shivered. “Maybe the spirits of those women are what has guided us.”

“According to Mama, Miz Raven mentioned an upright piano being in the parlor. Maybe whichever woman played it is my muse,” Bo said. “For now, let’s get back inside. Maverick will be here any minute to go look at the old building with me.”

***

“It’s going to take some elbow grease and work, but it’s the perfect size and layout,” Maverick said as he followed Bo around the old store building. “In its prime, this front part was probably the actually general store, and the back was for storage.”

“Do you really believe that people will drive all the way up here to take music lessons?” she asked.

The remodeling job looked formidable. Yet, with a little paint, clean windows, and a bright park bench on the front porch, it might all come together in time for a grand opening in the spring. For sure, the job would give her something to take her mind off Maverick Gibson.

“‘If you build it, they will come,’” Maverick said.

“You stole that line from an old movie,” Bo said.

He gathered her into his arms and held her tight against his chest. For a split second, she reconsidered his offer. The electricity between them dazzled, but regrets on either side would soon put out the fire like it was nothing but a flash in the pan.

“I’m going to miss you, Bo Simmons,” he whispered.

“The memory of me will fade,” she told him. “By the time you have two or three more adventures, you won’t even remember my name.”

“I will never, ever forget you.”

“I will cherish the memories we’ve made.” She smiled up at him.

“I will unpack them out of my virtual memory box every Christmas and think of you,” he promised.

“And I’ll be doing the same.” She took a step back before she changed her mind and did something that wouldn’t bring anything but more sadness in the years ahead.