Nobody's Baby but Mine(37)
Through a small archway off to the left she could see part of a kitchen with a peeling linoleum floor and a state-of-the-art cooking range. Another doorway presumably led to bedrooms in the back.
Annie Glide lowered herself with a great deal of effort into an upholstered rocker while Cal paced in front of her, glowering. “. . . then Roy said you pulled your shotgun on him, and now he tells me he won’t come out here again without a five-hundred-dollar deposit. Nonrefundable!”
“Roy Potts don’t know the difference between a hammer and his colon.”
“Roy is the best damn handyman in these parts.”
“Did you bring me my new Harry Connick, Jr. CD? Now that’s what I really want, not some fool handyman nibbin’ into my business.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I brought it. It’s out in the car.”
“Well, go on and get it for me.” She waved him toward the door. “And move that speaker when you get back. It’s too close to my TV.”
As soon as he disappeared, she speared Jane with her blue eyes. Jane felt a curious desire to throw herself on her knees and confess her sins, but she suspected the cantankerous woman would simply smack her in the head.
“How old are you, gal?”
“I’m thirty-four.”
She thought that one over. “How old does he think you are?”
“Twenty-eight. But I didn’t tell him that.”
“You never told him different, either, did you?”
“No.” Although she hadn’t been invited to sit, she found a place at the end of an old velvet couch. “He wants me to tell everyone I’m twenty-five.”
Annie rocked for a while. “You gonna do it?”
Jane shook her head.
“Cal told me you’re a college professor. That must mean you’re a real smart lady.”
“Smart about some things. Dumb about others, I guess.”
She nodded. “Calvin, he don’t put up with much foolishness.”
“I know.”
“He needs a little foolishness in his life.”
“I’m afraid I’m not too good at that sort of thing. I used to be when I was a child, but not much anymore.”
Annie looked up at Cal as he came in the door. “When I heard how fast you two got married, I thought she might have done you bad like your mama done your daddy.”
“The situations aren’t the same at all,” he said tonelessly.
Annie tilted her head toward Jane. “My daughter Amber wasn’t nothin’ more than a little white-trash gal spendin’ all her time runnin’ after boys. Laid her a trap for the richest one in town.” Annie cackled. “She caught him, too. Cal here was the bait.”
Jane felt sick. So Cal was the second generation of Bonner male trapped into marriage by a pregnant female.
“My Amber Lynn likes to forget she growed up dirtpoor. Isn’t that so, Calvin?”
“I don’t know why you’re always giving her such a hard time.” He walked over to the CD player, and a few moments later, the sounds of Harry Connick, Jr. singing “Stardust” filled the cabin.
Jane realized Connick was the man in the photograph on the mantel. What a strange old woman.
Annie leaned back in the chair. “That Connick boy has got him one beautiful voice. I always wished you could sing, Calvin, but you never could manage it.”
“No, ma’am. Can’t do much but throw a football.” He sat down on the couch next to Jane but not touching her.
Annie closed her eyes, and the three of them sat quietly listening to the honey-sweet voice. Maybe it was the gray day, the deep quiet of the woods, but Jane felt herself begin to relax. Time ticked away, and a curious alertness came over her. Here in this ramshackle house lying in the shadows of the Great Smoky Mountains, she began to feel as if she were on the verge of finding some missing part of herself. Right here in this room that smelled of pine and must and chimney smoke.
“Janie Bonner, I want you to promise me something.”
The feeling faded as she heard herself being addressed for the first time by her married name, but she didn’t get a chance to tell Annie she’d be using her maiden name.
“Janie Bonner, I want you to promise me right now that you’ll look out for Calvin like a wife should, and that you’ll think about his welfare before you think about your own.”
She didn’t want to do any such thing, and she struggled to hide her dismay. “Life’s complicated. That’s a hard thing to promise.”
“ ’Course it’s hard,” she snapped. “You didn’t think bein’ married to this man was gonna be easy, did you?”
“No, but . . .”