Coal Black Blues (22 page)

They left before anyone could toss rice or birdseed at them, without any more well wishes or good-byes. In the truck, she scooted across the seat to sit beside Neil, the dress pulled up to her knees. He kissed her again and then they drove the length of Coaltown, past the old familiar buildings, the one-time company houses where they had grown up as neighbors, by the bus stop, along the ball field where she’d watched him play baseball while she picked clover and fashioned it into chains, and last by the store, Carrie’s Corner, part of their past and now their future.

At the old house her grandparents had called home, they didn’t hurry. She changed out of the dress and hung it up. Tomorrow she would wash it by hand and let it dry, then wrap it in tissue paper so that someday another bride might wear it. Caroline took a long, warm bath and then put on the lace-trimmed nightgown she’d bought for her wedding night. She brushed her hair until it shone and came into the bedroom where Neil waited.

He gazed at her with admiration. “You look beautiful.” Neil slid the gown off and his hands caressed her skin with tenderness. “Come love me, honey.”

And she did, slow and sensual, wild and wanton, tender and tantalizing, for the first time as husband and wife.
Now and forever,
she thought, and afterward, she slept in Neil’s arms, her hands soft against his scars, her heart full and her love boundless, higher than the mountains, as lasting as eternity.

The End

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Other Books by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy:

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