Hidden Secrets(40)
“You did the right thing,” Karen said.
Luke carried Kim over the threshold into his house later that evening. He set her down long enough to push a button on the CD player. Mark Chesnutt’s voice came through the speakers, singing “Old Country.” It told a told a tale of a country boy and a city girl, how he’d just plowed until noon and how she’d never been loved at all until old country came to town. It wasn’t a romantic wedding song, but Kim knew exactly what Luke was saying as he two-stepped with her all over the living room.
“It says they get together every now and then,” he whispered. “But this old country boy is going to spend the rest of his life with you.”
“This city girl is going to enjoy every minute of it.” She laid her head on his chest and listened to the song as it played a second time.
“Country boys don’t get in a hurry, you know.” He kissed her ear.
“About what?”
“Anything.”
“Sounds like an exciting ride through life,” she told him.
He scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom where candles were lit. “Regretting not having a honeymoon?”
“No regrets. When I get where I’m going there’ll be no secrets. That’s what Nanna said once. I love you, Luke. Besides, this is our honeymoon, and I expect it to last for at least seventy years.”
He laid her gently on the bed and very slowly began to unfasten the two dozen buttons down the front of her pale blue dress.
“It’s strange, her being gone,” Sue said that evening as the three of them sat in the living room, sipping lemonade.
“She’s not gone. She’s just not right here. We’ll see her every day,” Karen said. “At least beginning Monday. I don’t expect to see much of them before then. But Luke will have school and she’ll be back in the office doing our accounting work.”
“Think Norma is happy?” Sue asked.
“I think this is a bonus,” Hannah said. “What Norma wanted most was for you and John to get together. When you get married the clouds will part, I’m sure.”
“Do you ever want to go back and redo it all? Turn back the clock and not come out here?” Sue asked Hannah.
“Not a single minute. I’m more alive than I’ve ever been. This is the best time of my whole life. I wouldn’t change a single minute of it and I hope there’s lots more harvests and cruises in store before I really do stroll over heaven with Norma.”
Karen raised her glass. “Me too. I was alive in Morgantown, but I’m living here. It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.”
“You think you’ll ever find someone?” Sue asked.
“Not for a minute,” she mimicked Hannah. “I’m not ever marrying again. How about you, Sue? I had this same conversation with Kim a few weeks ago. She couldn’t decide whether to marry Luke now or wait until the babies were born. I told her if she had doubts to wait. She assured me tonight there were no doubts. Are you going to have regrets someday? You’re the one giving up a teaching job and more friends than any of us had in Morgantown, plus you still had Jeff’s family out there.”
“No regrets,” Sue said. “None whatsoever. In Morgantown, I felt guilty every time I looked at another man. Jeff’s mother and sisters and his brother were always there in the back of my mind, telling me that I would be disrespecting his memory. Then there was the guilt from Corky. I’m so glad Kim doesn’t have the baggage we all had.”
“Amen.” Karen raised her glass again.
EPILOGUE
One year later
Hannah donned a denim jacket that morning. A norther had whipped down from Kansas the night before, dropping the temperature twenty degrees in five minutes. A bit unusual for September, but Oklahoma never promised steady, predictable weather. Tomorrow it might be back up to a hundred degrees.
She poured a cup of decaffeinated coffee. She hated the taste, but the doctor had given her a good report on her last visit. Her cholesterol was down and her heart sounded good. Carrying the coffee with her, she went to the garden. She sat down on the middle bench and envisioned Norma sitting on the grass in front of the memorial stone. In her imagination, Norma always wore the same overalls she’d worn in the picture still sitting on the dresser.
Hannah held up the cup in a toast.
“Happy birthday, my friend. We are now both eighty-one years old. It’s been a good year, full of surprises,” she said in a conversational tone, just as if Norma were sitting in front of the stone.
“We buried Myrtle last week, but you probably knew about that before we did. We had coffee that morning and she talked about remodeling her bathroom. Said she needed one of those step-in showers because it was getting to be too much for her hip to get in and out of the bathtub. Thought she just might fix the whole thing for wheelchair-bound folks since there could come a time when she would have to depend on one. Said that she hoped she never was confined to such a thing and that night she just fell asleep and woke up on the other side with her set of wings. She got her wish that very night. I hope you had a long talk with God and she had something solid to stand on or else you taught her to fly. I miss her, Norma, but I bet you two are sure having a good time.
“We had a wonderful cruise this year. Our crops were better than they were last year and I’m already looking forward to next year’s harvest. Anyway, I was telling you about the cruise. We went to the Bahamas. Stayed ten days. It was wonderful.
“Now down to the family business. As you know, Luke and Kim’s kids are seven months old now. Norma Jane and Hannah Rose, but to us they are Janey and Rosy. You know all that, though. The big surprise is the miracle. Remember, Luke wasn’t supposed to be able to make any babies. Well, he did, and it looks like we get twins again this time around. Rosy and Janey will be fourteen months old when they are born. Ain’t that a hoot? We’re turning the place into a baby ranch! Doctor says these two are boys.
“The living room looks like a day care center with swings, playpens, and all the things to help me take care of the babies while Kim does the book work, which seems to get bigger and bigger. Karen talked Sue into putting more garden into strawberries and starting another grape arbor for her jam business. She’s made the garage into a cute little shop, and there’s a constant flow of traffic in and out of here, buying jams and produce. You should see the commercial she’s got on television. The actor is so sexy it would make your heart do double time. Kim calls him eye candy. And Tillman called this last week and asked Karen to go to dinner and she actually said yes.
“Another surprise happened this year too. Sue and John got married and settled into his place last November. She thought she was old at forty, but she found out that she was just getting started. She got pregnant on the honeymoon. Guess it was Jeff’s fault they never had kids past Kim. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Kim laugh so hard in her life. She said before it was over we would have an ‘I’m my own grandpa’ situation. The baby was a boy, and they named him Ricky after your Ricky.
“I’m not slowing down a bit. Somehow, you did just the right thing when you brought us all together. I expect I’m trying to make up for the lean years and cram as much as I can into these last ones. They’re full and I’m happy. What more could an old lady ask out of life?
“I hear the van coming down the lane. Kim’s on her way with the children and Sue will be here soon with Ricky. Edith and Virgie will show up sometime this morning for coffee and to play with the babies. Life is good, Norma. I’ll be back to visit again soon. Have a good time with Myrtle. She’ll fill you in on the rest of the gossip. What’s that?” Hannah cocked her head to one side, straining to hear the whisper of a voice floating in the fall breeze. Of course, she couldn’t actually hear Norma talking to her but she could well imagine what she would be saying if she could speak that morning.
Finally, Hannah nodded. “You know I will. They’re yours as much as mine.”
Hannah was coming in the back door when Kim carried the first child through the garage and kitchen. “Nanna, where are you?”
“Right here, child. Been out talking to Norma. She sends her love.”